Metal Detectors and ore question.

[G Freeman]

This is one question I can not find in internet search. Will all metal detectors beep with raw gold or silver in quartz rocks. My inexpensive MD will beep to gold and silver coins and iron but will not make any attempt to beep with ore that has been tested positive for silver. I feel I need a Minelab or Fisher to prospect with. My MD only cost 70.00. Thanks everyone.

 

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[christo000]

My deus xp & will beep at Ore & my v3i will aswell also has a program designed around prospecting

 

[luvsdux]

In response to "will all metal detectors...." depends on how rich the ore in question is. Really rich sample will probably sound off on most, if not all detectors, especially in all metal mode. Lighter concentrations more likely will sound off on detectors designed for prospecting or that have a prospecting mode.
luvsdux

 

[rabbitt46]

It all depends on the quantity of metal in the "ORE". IF there is enough then the detector will sound off. But you still want a detector that is made to detect gold or silver, if you are trying to detect micro amounts of precious metals in raw ore you would want to look into an XRF machine (starts at $35,000). A $70.00 detector is not what you want to detect raw ore's. Fisher and Minelab both make that detector but you will be into the higher end machines. Still there has to be some significant amount for any one of them to detect.

 

[rabbitt46]

Check out this link

 

[jmoller99]

A lot of gold and silver ore is tied up in sulphides. While there might be a high mineral content, in those cases, a metal detector won't pick them up very well if at all. These also are harder to process (but there is still valuable minerals to be had).

If you happen upon a silver mining area that had pure silver mixed in with minerals, a Metal Detector will find that, but it could read almost anything on the meter/vdi. Small free gold requires a detector that is sensitive to it (which means it will be oversensitive to almost everything else) - These are not often low priced.

You need to learn what the ore looks like in the area you prospect in. A lot of gold in Colorado is tied up in Pyrites (the stuff others call fools gold) - however if you know what you are looking for, you will often be able recognise what is a worth while area to hunt and what isn't.

 

[Goldwasher]

Gold bug2, Goldmaster v/sat...4b and Gmt in manual mode...and a few other vlfs will when tuned for it...P.I machine will ignore a rock worth money as they are designed to ignore mineralization...and Gold/silver ore is mineralization. If an ore of sulfides not so easy...must be free milling ore...like if you crush it you will see metal without leaching or smelting. There are also pieces of ore with values that no detector will hit on.

 

[toe2short]

Who's mine is that? Do they go into any abandon mine? I guess you can.

 

[cryptic]

Good advice from everyone. There has to be a large enough quantity of metal in the ore to make the detector go off.