A Range of Hand-held Pinpointers

Compact, hand-held pinpointers can sure save a lot of wasted time & effort digging for and locating targets such as coins, jewellery, relics, and gold nuggets/specimens, upon both land, and also underwater. I know so, from decades of experience of digging (and backfilling) thousands of holes on land throughout our awesome Continent.

The way I look at it – the more time I save from digging, the more time I then have to detect more targets, especially when I am sometimes time-poor on my detecting adventures at the beach, parks or out bush. 

The more expensive pinpointers feature adjustable sensitivity settings - which is very handy in challenging ground conditions e.g. when using it upon/in mineralised ground or upon/in saltwater-saturated/conductive ground. They also feature audio/tactile alert options of vibration mode, with or without target-proximity audio indication.

In late 2023, Minelab released a new hand-held pinpointer – the  PRO-FIND 40.
The Minelab PRO-FIND 40 pinpointer has a 2-YEARS Minelab Warranty, with a nominal 9-Volt battery life of about 20 hours, and costs $269.

I did some simple, in-store testing using the new Minelab PRO-FIND 40 pinpointer – to determine the maximum air-depth range of detection of an Aussie $2 coin, and also a flat (7x4mm) 0.43 gram gold nugget (and compared to using the similar costing, orange-coloured Garrett Pro-Pointer AT - commonly called “The Garrett Carrot”). Both of these pinpointers contained new/same batteries, and were set on Maximum Sensitivity.
The results were as follows: 

$2 coin -  Minelab PRO-FIND 40 = 7cm range   (Garrett Pro-Pointer AT = 6cm range, and Minelab Pro-Find 15 = 3.5cm range)

0.43 gram gold nugget –  both the Minelab PRO-FIND 40 and the Garrett Pro-Pointer AT pinpointers = about 2cm range.

The new Minelab PRO-FIND 40 pinpointer has the following features:
•  10% more Depth than the Minelab PRO-FIND 35
•  A Rapid Re-tune function - making it quick and easy to compensate for ground conditions
•  Improved Stability - for more accurate pinpointing
•  Adjustable Sensitivity - with 5 levels of adjustment
•  A Lost Alarm - that sounds after a period of inactivity & combined with a bright red body - makes the PRO-FIND 40 easy to locate
•  A Ferrous Tone ID - that helps to sort trash from treasure

The new Minelab PRO-FIND 40 pinpointer kit includes:
•  PRO-FIND 40 pinpointer - with speaker and LED flashlight
•  Holster
•  Lanyard
•  9V PP3 battery
•  Multi-language instructions

Garrett Pro-Pointer AT (commonly called “The Garrett Carrot”)

Aussie-made  Coiltek  GOLDHAWK  coils

The Minelab GPX 6000 detector has now been available for nearly 2 years. Many prospectors throughout Australia have re-visited goldfields, including their “fav” patches, that they considered “flogged” and then unleashed the GPX 6000 over such areas to find even more gold, including at depth.

The popularity of the GPX 6000 is not only due to its high performance, but also because it is of relatively light weight (50% lighter than the Minelab GPZ 7000), and it is very easy to use - even for “newbie” detectorists, and budding “prospectors”. It also costs approximately 20% less (a few thousand dollars less) than the Minelab GPZ 7000.

Now, there are even more coil options available for the GPX 6000 detector. In fact, there are currently more coil options available for the GPX 6000 than for the GPZ 7000.

With Minelab’s approval, long-time Aussie coil-maker ‘COILTEK’ recently released a range of 3 different sized Monoloop (“Mono”) coils for the GPX 6000. These are named the ‘Goldhawk’ series of coils.

The Coiltek Goldhawk coils (very pale tan coloured) are rated as waterproof to 1-metre depth, have a 2-Year Warranty, and include the following sizes/weights:

9 inches round - cost $609  (weighs 700 grams)
10x5 inches - cost $579  (weighs 575 grams)
14x9 inches – cost $639  (weighs 900 grams)

Feedback so far, including from many gold hunters throughout Australia, has been impressive as to how stable (smooth & quiet) the coils run, and how sensitive they are to all sizes of gold nuggets, with great depth capabilities.

Many people also prefer the elliptical shaped coils, for not only ease of use in confined areas/less-open ground/more vegetated ground, but also for better pinpointing capability than a round coil.

TIPS  FOR  GOLD  HUNTING  IN  WESTERN  AUSTRALIA  –  Part 3

DETECTING TECHNIQUES
Gold Detecting Tips:
1.    Upon commencing detecting each day, consider doing a “Factory Preset” (on the GPX 6000) or “Reset Audio & Detection Settings” (on the GPZ 7000) – in order to optimise the operational performance of your highly-sensitive, Minelab pulse-induction detector.

2.    Be patient, the gold is not going anywhere – if the GPX 6000/GPZ 7000 becomes a bit noisy or “chattery”, then do a noise cancel followed by manual ground balancing using the “Quick Track” button. Some days I do this often throughout the day. This will optimise the performance of your GPX/GPZ so that you are not wasting time and possibly missing those quieter/faint target signal noises often associated with deeper gold.

3.    Swinging technique is also VERY CRITICAL to how much gold you are likely to detect. The “Low and Slow” rule is VERY IMPORTANT to find more gold. On soily ground (without too many sharp rocks) I would lightly and slowly rub my coil upon the ground, with overlapping sweeps from side to side, in order for the detectors pulse induction to energize gold nuggets as long as possible, and so as to increase the chance of the nugget being detected. I found that the coil skid plates lasted longer than I expected, and they are a small expense to pay for the benefit of finding more gold. (The gold price recently hit an-all-time record high of about AU$3,000 per ounce – nearly $100 per gram).

4.    After finding a gold nugget, and then re-checking the back-filled hole, I would always do a Noise Cancel, and a manual Ground Balance, to optimise the operation of my detector to find further nuggets.

5.    Whenever possible, and about half-way during a day of prospecting (during my midday lunch break), I would replace my detector's Lithium-ion battery with a fully charged battery.

6.    A Guide Arm (or Control Arm) attachment to the shaft of your detector can also be very useful. The end-grip of the guide arm is held by your non-detecting hand, so as to provide precisely controlled swinging of the coil within both the horizontal and vertical planes. The guide arm is also great for distributing some of the detector weight to the strength of your non-detector arm. I found that a guide arm greatly increased my prospecting comfort, especially on long, consecutive days of swinging.

7.    A Bungee cord (also often called a Bunji or Bungey cord) is often worn by many prospectors using the heavier GPZ 7000, especially if it is being swung for sessions of longer than a few hours. I also used a bungee cord on my GPX 6000 (attached from the shaft of my detector to the “D” ring on my harness) to minimise fatigue since I would mostly swing my 6000 for about 8 hours a day (equivalent to the running time of a fully charged battery). Some weeks I would swing for 7 consecutive days (that was about 56 hours of swinging a week). I found using a bungee made a huge difference to my muscle fatigue, and it provided me with greater swinging endurance time per day. More swinging = more ground coverage = more gold.

8.    If you find a gold patch, then use all the suitable coils you have on the patch, and also then thoroughly over the patch – that is, not only sweep-swinging on a grid-like pattern in both perpendicular directions, but also at angles across the patch. It never ceased to surprise me how much more gold I picked up with the GPX 6000 by detecting in many different directions on a patch. I would firstly exhaust the patch of gold using the GPX17” mono coil. When I was finding little more gold on a patch, I would then run the GPX11” mono coil over the patch and find more gold. Finally, I would then put the GPX14” DD coil and often find some more gold.


UNFILLED HOLES
One of my pet hates .... unfilled holes dug by lazy detectorists/prospectors - it ain’t rocket science.
Besides, it is generally much quicker to fill in a hole than dig it.
Who would like strangers coming into their yard and digging holes? let alone leaving them unfilled?
To me, leaving their holes unfilled is a reflection of, not only someone’s personality, but also their professionalism as a prospector.

During my several years of prospecting in W.A., I reckon I encountered tens-of-thousands of holes, some up to about 2-feet deep, left unfilled by other people using detectors. Most poachers do not backfill their holes - for various reasons.

I would often run my detector over many of these unfilled holes and find trash left in them, or in the adjacent spoil.

Fortunately, on about half a dozen occasions, I found small gold nuggets either still remaining in the hole, or in the spoil beside the hole - that were missed. On two occasions I found two nuggets within a hole after digging out the holes deeper.

Always re-check your holes & the spoil, and then check again after you have back-filled them. You might just get a nice surprise, like I did on a few occasions.


THEY NEVER GET ALL THE GOLD
One day I encountered two old "blow-in" (from interstate) prospectors near Kalgoorlie detecting some recent scrapes using a GPZ 7000 with a Minelab GPZ 19" 'Super-D' coil and a "modified" GPX 4500 with a Coiltek 18" Elite Mono coil.
 
I also had written permission to be on that lease to detect gold using my Minelab GPX 5000 with my new Nugget Finder 15" Evolution mono coil.
I got yarning to these blokes as they were packing up to leave. They loudly boasted that I "would be absolutely wasting my time" detecting the scrapes with my "stock 5000" as they "had completely flogged the ground" with both of their "high performance" detectors.

After they left, I fired up my trusty & proven workhorse GPX 5000, and I unleashed it upon that ground with enthusiasm. The first thing I did was walk upon the top of the many windrows (soil bunds created via machinery pushing/scraping operations), and I detected their tops, and both side batters.

Over the next few days, I pulled out over several ounces of gold (40+ nuggets) including a stunning half-ouncer at a depth of 1.5 feet. Most of the bigger nuggets were within the windrows. Other blokes who had recently pushed this ground with a loader not only failed to detect the nuggets in the windrows, but so too had these two "mature"-aged interstate prospectors missed all these nuggets. I had found more-than-enough "missed gold" to buy a brand spankin' new Minelab GPZ 7000. I had a few quiet chuckles to myself.

Over the next few years I was often amused hearing others claim they had "flogged" areas. This always presented a challenge to me - to try and prove them wrong. In the vast majority of cases I always found multiple nuggets from such so-called "flogged" ground.

It would seem to me that it was highly likely that all of those hundreds of nuggets I found on such so-called "flogged" grounds was due to poor detecting techniques used by others (including lack of patience and thoroughness).


TERRAIN/GEOLOGICAL INDICATORS
The vast majority (90%+) of gold nuggets I found in W.A. were detected with a distance of about 0.5km to 1km of a hill or hill/s. Many nuggets I detected were on the sides of hills or near the toes of hills too. A salt lake/s was often nearby too, within about 1 to 2 km's.

Most of the biggest nuggets I found in W.A. were at depth, often nearby large/old trees, and they were either within gold patches containing numerous nuggets, or nearby at least a few other smaller nuggets.

I also detected many nuggets buried under tree logs & branches that I carefully moved (watch out for snakes). Sometimes I would find unfilled holes scattered nearby/beside big logs that, surprisingly, had not been moved. I would then move these potential "nugget covers" and sometimes detect gold nuggets below. Many part-time/hobby detectorists are not absolutely thorough in their physical quest for gold. Full-time prospectors mostly think-outside-the-norm, and also take those extra, hard-yards steps to find more gold - probably because for many of them, their (and their family's) livelihood/s depends on it.

Saltbush vegetation was often nearby where I found gold too. I found several great nuggets beside the roots of saltbushes.

Often where I found gold (and other long-time local prospectors told me the same too) nearby was any/many of the following geological indicators:
Quartz + ironstone (often called “salt & pepper” ground)
Laterite ground
Banded Iron Formations (BIF's)
Greenstone belts
Jasper
Fault lines and contact zones (sometimes they can be naturally marked by way of obviously contrasting/sudden changes in vegetation types)

Many long-time, local prospectors in W.A. enjoy going out prospecting after heavy rains (when unsealed roads are not closed and not boggy) - since good gold is often eroded out of the ground and exposed, to be possibly spotted by a sharp-eye, or become within the range of detection of a detector coil.

REFERENCE BOOKS

There are many good books (and atlases) available for information on gold prospecting in Australia. I particularly like reference books that contain good maps, including locations of historical gold workings & mines. For decades in Australia, aussie prospector Doug Stone has authored several such prospecting books & atlases, including for Western Australia.


SIMPLE AIR-DEPTH CALIBRATION TEST:
At the start of every prospecting session, after turning my detector on and then doing the Noise Cancel, and Ground Balancing procedures, to get the detector running quiet & smooth, I would ALWAYS do an air-depth detection calibration test - to ensure my detector was running at near optimum performance for depth.
For this test I used a new/clean Aussie 5 cent coin (that I would always carry in my pocket), and I would confirm the maximum height (above the coin-on-the-ground) that the coil could just detect the coin.
Around Kalgoorlie, I generally obtained the following air-depth testing/calibration results (on an unburied 5 cent coin) for the respective Minelab detector & coil/s that I was using:

GPX6000 with 11" round Minelab Mono coil = 14" depth
GPZ 7000 with 14×13" Minelab Super-D coil = 16" to 18" depth
GPX 5000 with 19" round Nugget Finder Evolution Mono coil = 16" to 18"depth
GPX 5000 with 25" round Nugget Finder DD X-Search coil = about 20" depth

The above air-depths were the absolute maximum detection depths I generally achieved, and less than the detection depth of the same metal target buried in the ground, especially in highly mineralised ground.

Pulse-induction detectors will generally lose depth performance to some degree in highly to extremely mineralised ground, particularly when using highly-sensitive, flat-wound Monoloop coils, and especially as the ground surface temperature increases.
In "difficult ground" (highly mineralised and/or conductive), and sun-heated ground, a DD coil of at least the same diameter (albeit heavier than a Monoloop coil of the same diameter) may be more of an advantage.


PICKS
For extra grip for my big hands, and also for increased shock-absorbing capacity, I fitted a rubberised tennis handle wrap to my pick handle.

I always had a super-strong, round/flat, rare earth magnet mounted upon the top middle of the head of my pick. It was great for pulling out iron-based trash e.g. wire etc. It also often grabbed hot rocks. Don't just assume that all such hot rocks consist totally of iron and don't contain any gold. Over the years I found several hot rocks on my magnet that when broken up contained gold.


RECORD & SECURE YOUR NUGGETS .... & 4WD KEY
Most gold prospectors I have met (hundreds of them) use a plastic container (i.e. a used medication-type bottle) in the field to store their smaller, found gold, and most carry that container in either their shirt pocket or trouser pocket.

Over the years I was told by several local W.A. prospectors that they had found small plastic pill-type containers apparently dropped in the bush by other prospectors. Most contained gold nuggets. One bloke told me the container he found had 19 nuggets in it, totaling about an ounce. It was found on 'Pending' ground.

I store my freshly found nuggets within a plastic container, either secured:
(A) inside a zippered, deep compartment inside my backpack (together with the keys for my 4WD); or
(B) inside my trouser pocket - with a lanyard made from strong, pink coloured string that is securely connected from the bottle thread to a belt loop on my trousers.

I also use compact (pocket) digital scales to weigh, and I also photograph my significant gold nuggets in the field immediately after finding them.
That way if you then lose such a valuable nugget/s (either by accident, or it being stolen), at least you have a digital record (with a date & time stamp) of you having then had possession/ownership of it prior to it being lost or stolen.


LOOKING AFTER THE BUSINESS END OF YOUR DETECTOR
I regularly inspect my detector coils for any damage, and very carefully/gently remove the coil skid plate to clean out any dust and soil that may possibly congregate over time. In Western Australia where highly to extremely mineralised soils are common, such very fine mineralised dust can eventually find it’s way into between the coil and the skid plate.

This is even more likely to occur for large diameter spoked coils, compared to small round solid coils – mainly due to the significantly more total length of the contact faces between the coil and the skid plate.
If enough such material gets in, and also moves around whilst swinging, then this can affect the performance of highly sensitive, pulse-induction detectors.

I also wrap the circumference of all my coils with a quality adhesive tape. This acts as both a seal against any possible ingress of moisture and/or dust, and also as a protective layer on the outer vertical edge of the coil which nudges/rubs on soil, rocks, etc. I prefer Scotch heavy-duty grade ‘SUPER 88’ vinyl tape. It usually lasts me several months of swinging.

Talking about dust - which can find its way into almost all small gaps - it can pay to make sure that all the pin connections for all cables (like the coil cable plug, and also any battery cable plugs) are fully inserted, with the screw rings also done up firm.

Given the tens-of-thousands of dollars I spent buying pulse-induction metal detectors over the years, I always protected these investments from the dust, heat, and potential damage (e.g. caused by impact/scratching etc), by way of fitting quality, Aussie-made, padded canvas protective covers over the control box of each detector. Such protective covers can also protect the manufacturer’s labels of serial number/security codes – which may be useful down the track.
Furthermore, for concealment and ease of transportation of my detectors and accessories, I also use quality, Aussie-made, padded canvas carry bags for all my detectors.

When I was gold prospecting full-time in W.A. I soon learned the benefit of dusting down my detector & coil/s at the end of each day (with a soft cotton rag), prior to placing my detector & coil/s into the padded carry bag. This end-of-day ritual sure helped minimise the amount of fine dust that got caught inside the canvas carry bag. After every week of prospecting I would empty my carry bag of it's contents, and then turn it inside out to thoroughly shake out any dust that had congregated. I also kept all electrical-related accessories (like spare cables, and batteries and headphones, etc), within separate plastic clip-seal bags to minimise any dust entering the plugs or connections. This held me in good stead for years without any issues.

[Nugget image source - Facebook page of Finders Keepers Gold Prospecting - Kalgoorlie, W.A.]

TIPS  FOR  GOLD  HUNTING  IN  WESTERN  AUSTRALIA  –  Part 2 of 3

To prospect safely alone in W.A., particularly when I was solo free ranging (i.e. patch hunting on my own) and some days walking up to 8km away from my 4WD, I always carried a fair bit of gear on my body, for both practical & safety reasons.

Accordingly, I used a very comfortable load bearing, mesh-style vest (featuring a rear backpack and many pouches). It typically hit the scales at about 12kg (much heavier than my Minelab pulse-induction detectors + big pick). I would always carry at least 5 litres of water, 3 days of food rations,  first-aid kit,  LED headlamp,  LED torch including strobe light, a PLB,  an extra GPS device (apart from the Trilobite App on my phone), spare batteries, Gorilla tape, cable ties, cigarette lighter, a LifeStraw water filter, Leatherman tool, etc.

Another option for carrying less gear (including detecting closer to your vehicle) is to use a  harness.

It pays to carry more-than-sufficient water – both on foot, and in your vehicle. Many people who perished in remote areas in recent years did so away from their vehicles and also without water. (e.g. many people forget, or simply do not consider, that the windscreen washer water reservoir within the engine bay of most 4WD vehicles can contain at least a few litres of pure water – that can possibly be drinkable, as an absolute last resort in the event of an emergency. I do not add any chemicals to my water reservoir, and regularly flush & refill it with clean and pure water, for that very reason. Who knows …. Something so simple could save a life one day).

If you are intending to prospect alone in remote areas, it is also important to consider issues like:
Reliability and maintenance of your vehicle
Carrying suitable & sufficient water, food, safety equipment, fuel, and spare parts, and allowing for potentially being stranded for many days
Communications equipment
Weather forecasts
Spare metal detector/s and batteries and cables and coils
Spare key for vehicle – not locked inside the vehicle
Charging of batteries (e.g. via deep-cycle battery and/or solar or generator)


DOUBLE-RECORD THE LOCATIONS OF YOUR VEHICLE & CAMP
In recent years, several prospectors (mostly older blokes) have gone missing in W.A. Despite extensive searches, some missing prospectors have not been found, nor any of their prospecting gear. This makes you wonder – fools play? or foul play?

One valuable lesson I learned was to double-record the co-ordinates of the locations of my parked 4WD and camp. I would record the GPS co-ordinates on both my Trilobite App, and on my back-up Garmin GPS device (just in case one of them ever failed). This method served me well, especially in terrain which was new to me, or where the vegetation was all the same, and in the absence of nearby landmarks.

 
PERSONAL LOCATOR BEACONS (PLB’s) / EPIRB’s
Did you know?
That  some PLB/EPIRB devices have been activated unintentionally  by being too close to the coil of a pulse-induction metal detector that is turned on/operating.

In 2017 a prospector in the Pilbara, Western Australia - who reportedly had possession of a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) - unknowingly had his 'KTI' brand SA2G model PLB activated - when it came within very close proximity of the operating coil of his pulse-induction metal detector.
(Also reported on the Facebook page of "Finders Keepers Gold Prospecting" – refer to posts on 5 October 2020).

I understand that due to this issue - KTI re-designed their SA2G model PLB - which is now designated as the SA2GN model.

There have also been other similar accidental activations of EPIRB/PLB's by operating pulse-induction metal detectors being placed too close.

There are in excess of fifty (50)  different models of EPIRB's/PLB's available on the Australian market. 'KTI' is one of the most popular brands of PLB.

To avoid the potential for accidental activation of my PLB – I keep my PLB (inside the rear of my backpack) and stored inside a waterproof, stainless-steel canister – which acts as a ‘Faraday Shield’ – to block electromagnetic fields/radiation.

 
PLB/EPIRB TESTING + AMSA RECORD
Given that most of my prospecting was alone in W.A, and often in remote areas, I ALWAYS carried a PLB/EPIRB.
Not only that, I also REGULARLY tested (before every trip away or every 2 months - whichever came sooner) that my PLB was in proper working order. This included testing that the battery life was OK, and also that the transmitter function of the device also worked correctly - via the Manufacturer's recommended Test Mode functions on the device.

After this was done, I would also  update my AMSA Registration record  (via my online account), including information about my planned pending trip, re: my vehicle/s, planned trip route, likely camping locations & estimated travel dates.

HARD GROUND = HARD WORK BY HAND
Some of the hardest ground I have encountered during prospecting is in W.A. I soon learned the importance of using  a high-quality, heavy-duty pick. In some locations I found gold within/near Calcrete (a natural, concrete-like formation). Gold is often associated with the presence of Calcrete, and also with the presence of ironstone and quartz (particularly "rotten" quartz). In some instances where I detected gold contained within Calcrete, I used a cold-chisel & steel mallet, or a heavy-duty crowbar & sledgehammer (stored within my 4WD) to free the gold nuggets from calcrete.

Quality gloves are also useful to prevent blisters, abrasions, cuts, sunburn and hot ground.

On some hot summer days, the ironstone-pebble strewn ground got so hot that I was unable to hold by bare hands upon the ground for longer than about 3 seconds before burning my palms. Knee pads (including incorporated into work trousers) can also be very useful – some days I would dig & backfill over a hundred holes – which really worked my knees & back.

POTENTIAL THREATS
After spending years living, working and prospecting in the bush throughout Australia – not too much worries me out there in the bush.

I have had many solo encounters with lone wild dogs, and they all appeared to be very cautious of my presence. During the several encounters I have had with a pack of wild dogs, I was more concerned as they seemed less scared of me and more prone to come closer to me as a pack, before I scared them off.

My advice – Be aware of your surroundings (“situational awareness”), particularly if you are alone. Accordingly, I prefer to mostly use  speakers  when detecting, or sometimes a sports earphone in one ear (not earmuffs-style headphones). Noise is a generally good deterrent against wild animals, including wild dogs. Interestingly, I read that scientists from two Queensland universities recently found that some  Australian snakes such as Taipans, brown snakes and death adders can hear, as well as sense vibrations.

JOE BLAKES & SPINIFEX
Leg gaiters – for protection against both “Joe Blakes” (snakes), and also Spinifex needles (common throughout Western Australia’s goldfields). Over the past 7 years I have been wearing gaiters (‘SNAKEprotex’) – that were rated for protection against venomous Australian snakes (including an adult Taipan which can possess fangs up to one-half-an-inch long). I found gaiters excellent for protection against spinifex needles when I was gold prospecting in both central Australia and Western Australia. Lots of good gold country in W.A. often contains plenty of spinifex.

PROSPECTING AT NIGHT
Unless you have significant local prospecting experience, you would be taking big risks to prospect alone in W.A. at night in terrain you are not very familiar with. Many biting/stinging creep-crawlies come out at night. It is also much more challenging to judge the distance of range at night.

I only ever prospected alone at night upon pushed/scraped gold patches (well-defined areas) nearby where my vehicle was parked, with an LED strobe light operating upon the roof-rack (as a great reference point marker). A spare headlamp + spare batteries are a MUST.

PERFORMANCE ENHANCING
Be mindful of your personal performance when prospecting alone. A few things that I found affected my prospecting performance were not keeping properly hydrated, lack of regular meals & breaks, poor boot comfort, and poor ergonomics of backpack & detector.

Also be mindful of issues that may affect the performance of/interfere with your super-sensitive, pulse-induction metal detector e.g. mobile phones NOT set on Flight Mode, or wearing steel-capped boots, or UHF radios, or  pin-pointers,  or the digging pick head too close to your big coil,

 
FLIES & HEAD-WEAR
During my most recent prospecting travels over the past 7 years throughout most of our awesome continent of Australia, I had not encountered such numbers of menacing flies as I found several hundred kilometres north of Kalgoorlie. From sunrise to sunset, during my regular 8-hour-days of swinging a gold-hunting “beepstick”, the small, fast flies were absolutely relentless.

Annoyance-reduction measures that helped me somewhat included either wearing a head-net (which I generally do not like), or mostly wearing a broad-brimmed, shady hat with a Scrim mesh material curtain draped around the sides & rear (to also provide sun protection), and wrap sunglasses with large lenses. To some degree, I also found that dabbing a suitable repellent (I preferred to use a non-DEET/natural oils-based solution such as Nature’s Botanical Rosemary & Cedarwood Oils Repellent) on my face and the Scrim mesh also deterred many flies. Beware that DEET-based repellents can damage plastics - including the screens of detectors, particularly if the screens do not have  a protective cover.

Unfortunately, some of the best gold country I encountered in W.A. also had the worst masses of flies.

HOT ROCKS & METEORITES
During more than 300 days of prospecting in W.A. I reckon I detected hundreds of hot rocks. Moreso with my Minelab SDC2300 than with my GPX 5000 and GPX 6000, and GPZ 7000. Having a curious mind, I always pocketed these highly mineralised/often heavy/often magnetic rocks to take home and smash up in a dolly pot. Occasionally a small bit of gold was won from such hot rocks.

Sometimes such “hot rocks” are in fact of extra-terrestrial origin e.g. meteorites, some of which contain iron, nickel and cobalt. Not all meteorites are attracted to a magnet. Iron-Nickel meteorites (with a majority content of iron, and up to about 8% nickel content) will very strongly attach to a magnet, and hence be clearly detected by a metal detector. Several different types of  meteorites have been found in the goldfields of Western Australia, including near Kalgoorlie. Some of the rarest types of meteorites are worth more than gold per ounce.

TRASH

Many prospectors I met have a strong magnet attached to the outer top of their pick head. In trashy areas, a good magnet can pull out a lot of ferrous junk metals (including tiny bits of wire that can cause a lot of wasted time to find otherwise)

I heard similar stories from other prospectors, and I experienced it myself – the detection of aluminium beer/soft-drink cans down deep inside goanna holes, and concealed inside nearby logs. Talk about a frustrating waste of time. So beware of animal tunnel entrance holes, or hollow logs, nearby where you detect a target.


BIG NUGGETS RECENTLY FOUND IN W.A.
In recent years many impressive gold nuggets (and gold/quartz and gold-ironstone specimens) have been unearthed using  Minelab pulse-induction-technology metal detectors in Western Australia, including near Kalgoorlie.

(Images source - Facebook page of Finders Keepers Gold Prospecting - Kalgoorlie, W.A.)

OTHER THAN GOLD
Some other interesting things found by prospectors in W.A. include:
Fulgurite (I found a 3.9kg specimen), Opal – including Moss Opal, Chrysoprase (“Australian Jade”), Devils Dice, Meteorites, Australites (Tektites), stone tools, black octahedral Hematite crystals, metallic fragments of SkyLab, gold sovereign/half-sovereign coins, etc.

Other useful tips will be discussed soon in Part 3 of this article – to be published online soon.