Black Sand

[Briar-patch]

There are some beaches that I visit where there are heavy patches of Black Sand that can be picked up with a magnet. It's heavy stuff and I read somewhere that is where heavy stuff like gold, silver, etc. would collect. My old detector (Daytona GBD) can't be used in this area. The black sand blocks everything out that is not visible on the surface. I found a US company that makes "Vibra-Tector" a small handheld detector with a four inch coil, automatic tuning, claims it can be used in black sand. They also make a probe called "Vibra-Quatic, which I plan to use on the same beach during certain times in the year when the sand is washed completely off the beach and the multilevel bedrock is exposed, which is sort of a hardened clay where various types and sizes of rocks accumulate in pools between the bedrock and in crevices. These detectors are small, almost stealth like and would not draw much attention, easy to carry, advertised as waterproof to 100 feet. Their effective depth is advertised at about 4 inches. They are automatic tuning, all metal mode detectors, which is OK cause I want to dig everything in this area. I can't find anyone who uses this brand... is anyone familiar with this brand? If you Google Vibra-tector, you will be able to access the website and view photos and some details on these units. Any comments or testimonies, good/bad news would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

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[lastleg]

Briar-patch,

The reviews are negative for beach-hunting with these devises. 3 inches is too
shallow for the quality finds. BTW a PI detector going that shallow and providing
no discrimination would drive you nuts. Read what Kellyco-Chick sez after hearing
from beach-hunters. Save you dough for a better unit. Besides, who wants to crawl
around in the sand all day?

 

[Frankn]

I have the Vibra-tector and it will go 6". It works because it uses PI technology. My Whites surfmaster PI Pro will pickup in the black with no problem. The Vibra-Tector is small and the comment about crawling on the sand is true. It is designed to use in the water. Mell Fisher used them in his big recovery. I imagine most if not all PI detectors will work in black sand. By the way, that's iron not gold forming the black sand! Frank

 

[riverrunner814]

Hi, If you are getting black sand on the beach there most likely, posativley have gold in thos streak of black sands also called magnetite. Just go get a pan and pan it out, do test pans and you might find some gold, the gold may be as little as what we call flower gold. But as the tide changes so does the gold and black sadns location. Your getting me jumpy, Packing my gear and heading for the mountains to prospect for gold this weekend.

 

[riverrunner814]

Check the gold prospectors of america, join the forum and run a post thers all great people and maybe can help you a little more.

 

[Briar-patch]

Here in Japan, there is tons of black sand on the beach in patches. It runs deep, 5 to 6 feet down and the patches are almost pure black sand. I have scooped some of it out and have taken it home to play with and further purified it with a magnet, removing the nonmagnetic particles. I have samples in coffee jars and it's heavy stuff. My metal detector detects it. In it's pure black form its actually pretty stuff and I wonder if it could be used or made into something. I know that swordsmiths used to make samurai swords out of it and that steel companies use it in the steel making process. I've seen some websites that sell it to make health products, but don't understand how that works... maybe just quackery. Yes... the black patches do move around and are sometimes washed right off the beach with the rest of the sand all the way down leaving only a multi-stepped grey hard clay-like bedrock with lots of various colored and sized round polished rocks and stones in between the lower areas and between crevices. Hard to get a detector coil in there, but have visually found lead fishing sinkers in there when I'm picking around in the rocks.