Ground Mineralization

[livetoplay804]

Hello,

After researching and reading the best ways to configure my Whites Spectrum, Ground Mineralization seems to be a big thing. In the past Garrett never really had me do anything with this (ground mineralization).

Ok, how do I tell how many minerals are in the ground. (I know that is not exactly how it works) Some of the pro options allow me to tweak the settings myself. Some take care of them for me. What is the best way to handle Ground Mineralization. What exactly is Ground Mineralization and how does it differ from region to regioin and so on.

Any Ideas? Live in SW Missouri, some clay and black dirt. Lots of rocks. We do come across a few hot rocks once in awhile. Also, what is the best way to get the most depth from an Eagle Spectrum? AC or Pre Amp or both. What about Recovery Speed.

Please someone help me, I know these machines are capable of so much and I am usually really good with technology, but this seems to have me stumped.

Sincerely,
Chris from Missouri

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Family Maps of Hinds County, Mississippi, Deluxe Edition - Grab it through Amazon!

[bakergeol]

All VLF detectors including Garrett have to deal with ground mineralization. Proper ground balancing is how one deals with ground mineralization. If you manually ground balance you are directly adjusting for mineralization. All VLF detectors including your past Garrett have either
Preset Ground Balancing
Auto Ground Balancing
Manual Ground Balancing
Combination of any preset and manual ground balancing
Iron minerals in the soil(mainly magnetite) are detected by your detectorand the amount varies from location to location. Extreme mineralization will affect the depth of your detector. Some areas such as in the west have a lot of magnetite or iron minerals in their rocks and soil where other areas such as the Mid-West commonly have low mineralization. When I lived in Ohio the rocks were mainly sedimentary with little magnetite or iron minerals in the rocks and soil. The rich farm soil was thereby ideal for detecting with little iron mineralization. When I moved to the West where there is a lot of igneous and metamorphic rocks witch have? a lot of magnetite and therefor high mineralization. Old mining areas usually have high mineralization.

If you are getting poor depth high mineralization is a common reason. Some detectors like Whites MXT can give you a definite number for mineralization.
Here is a good explanation by S&P Treasure Finders

What is Ground Balancing?
? Without some method of "ground balancing", the metal detector would be detecting all the minerals present in the soil, therefore not seeing through them, an thus, small or deeper targets would not override the signals produced by the minerals. In extremely mineralized soil, the metal detector would hardly be able to detect a target laying on the surface of the soil.
? ?Ground balancing the detector is simply, the term used to describe the function of adjusting the metal detector to ignore the minerals in the soil so that they are not detected by the metal detector.
? ?


George

 

[deacon]

Chris,
George posted some good information. Learn all you can from your manual for your detector. If you have different choices to groundbalance try them all to see which works best for you.I have an older Garrett's that requires manual ground balancing,that is done by making adjustments while raising and lowering the coil until the sound doesn't change, The hardest part is to continually monitor your balanced setting as mineralization can change while detecting on the same site. I also have a newer Garrett's that has auto ground balance and a Tesoro with auto ground balancing(it's nice to not think about balancing). But when it really comes down to it I actually get better depth from my older machine when it is properly ground balanced. It's still my favorite for relic hunting.

Deacon

 

[livetoplay804]

Thanks for the information.

I am just trying to get the most our of my machine. All I hear about is how deep the whites will go. Well I have not seen it yet. So it has to be me or the ground. Not sure.


I have a test pit with some deep coins. Guess I will keep playing until I get it right.

Thanks
Chris

 

[Monty]

I have two Garretts machines and they both have a feature to automatically ground balance as I go. Ditto my BH. The BH and one of the Garretts machines allow me to manually ground balance if I want to. Mineralizatioin is not a problem in my area except where they use foundary slag for roads and fill for parks. Then I manually ground balance often out of habit.