Saw your request for information about the gold PI detectors and the answers that you received.
First of all, I was involved with the development of the Garrett Infinium LS by working in conjunction with the Garrett Engineers and field testing in Australia.
The first point that should be taken into account, is that a standard pulse induction detector that is designed for beach work and not gold detecting will not really have a great success in the highly mineralised soils of the goldfields.
When we started testing, we looked at the beach type pulse induction detectors and looked at the capabilities of these units. Using a 5.3 gram nugget, these units would detect it on the surface of the mineralised soil, but by placing this nugget at 40mm (just under 2") they were unable to detect this nugget through the iron mineralisation soil.
Beach PI's are designed for the salt mineralisation where a gold PI is designed for the ironstone affected soil, but will equally work well at the beach.
So due to this, if working in medium to high mineralisation soils, you will need a PI that has ground cancelling capabilities. At this stage, there are only two brands of PI detectors that fit this requirement and that is the Garrett Infinium LS and the Minelab SD/GP units.
Now if you are looking at working in the water, the Garrett Infinium LS is definetely the way to go as it is fully waterproof down to a depth of 200 feet whereas the coils supplied on the Minelab units are not even waterproof so you would have to go for an after market coil that could be submerged in the water.
If you were only looking at land detecting, then I would look at both brands of detectors.
The Infinium LS and rhe Minelab SD2200D basically have the same depth capabilities wheras the GP series tend to have more sensitivity to very small nuggets, but still not as small as a VLF gold detector will have. VLF detectors will always have better response to small gold than PI detectors and I have seen gold that PI's wont pick up, but a good VLF gold detector will.
I like what the Garrett Infinium has to offer and it is also very well priced. The two types of discrimination work well on the Infinium, especially when they are used in conjuction with each other and also they work at depth wheras the SD/GP discrimination is only surface discrimination and on larger targets only.
So there you have it. I would still take the VLF unit with you and in regards to a PI, this decission will have to be made by you.
Hoping you have a great New Year.
Regards,
Phil
