Identifying Gold with a Detector

After you have invested in your detector and have done all the work involved in getting set up and found your location, have managed to eliminate the hot rocks etc and have located a nugget, it’s time to put it inside your film canister.

There are several techniques of identifying gold. One of the most common ones is to grab a bunch of dirt in your hand wave it over the loop. If the handful of dirt makes a sound you should look for the gold. However, this works fine when you are dealing with a bigger target and when the loop is not so sensitive. Keep in mind also that there are some detectors that are so sensitive that they will actually pick up the salt in your body so you should first test in on the palm of your hand. If the detector picks up a positive signal on your palm, try using your fingers. Then you can instead just grab a pinch of dirt and do the job this way but this technique obviously works better when dealing with bigger nuggets.

There is also another method that is commonly used which is called the sprinkle method. In this type of method you will need to grab a handful of dirt with the suspected target and slowly sprinkle it on the top of the hoop. Make sure when doing it this way that the loop is horizontal on the ground so you do not lose your nugget by it falling off onto the ground. Flakes of gold will latch onto the loop if they are gold. You will be able to hear a signal if it is gold by doing it this way. Make sure though to sprinkle it over the loop little by little and get rid of the dirt that has already been tested on the loop before adding more on it. This works better for both larger sized and smaller sized nuggets because both will cause a sound when they bounce off the hoop.

Another way of doing this is by simply taking handfuls of dirt little by little as you check the hole to see when the target disappears from the ground. After having made sure the target is in your hand, simply dump the dirt inside your pouch. After having done this you will then need to use your pan in order to pan out the nuggets.

Another way you can detect gold in areas that have soft soil in the mountain areas is by scooping the dirt into a plastic gold pan little by little. Then pan then needs to be shaked in order for the gold to go to the bottom of the pan; this occurs because the density of the gold will cause it to go down to the bottom because of the gravity. You will then need to pass the pan over the hoop to check to see if there is gold there or not. If you do not hear a signal you should test the soil again to see if the gold is still in there and then place the soil in the pan on the side.

Keep in mind that nuggets can often times work their way down to the bottom of the pan. If the nugget is still inside the pile there will be no problem. Simply add in another scoop and do keep on going with the process. When you are able to finally identify the nugget in the pan, move some of the dirt to the side of the pan and make sure to check both of the piles of dirt. Continue doing this until you have a pile that is small enough to where you are able to blow the excess off and expose the gold. If you do not have a pan you can also do this on a rock.

There is a pan that is rectangular and has a bevelled shovel side and three edges that are raised and the good thing about having this type of gold pan is that you can use it to shovel the dirt from the pile and dig small holes. Having a little trap or pocket at the end of the tray is also very useful when it comes to trapping the piece of gold when the tray is being shaken. The tray then needs to be passed over the loop as mentioned above and little by little the soil needs to be wiped off of the tray until the gold is in the pocket trap or close to it. The dirt on the gold can then be blown off carefully (make sure not to blow little teensy nuggets off).

If you are working in an area that has humid or muddy soil you will probably need to do the pinch method as blowing on this dirt will not be very useful. After having identified the target just place the dirt aside in your pouch so you can separate it later.