Can Gold be Detected By a Metal Detector? Answer is Yes!

What if you’re asked to join a gold hunt? Would you do it? Of course, you would! Hunting for treasures had been a childhood dream for most of us. The idea of being rich in no time drives us. Since there had been a lot of success stories, this is not a daydream anymore.

But the question remains that how do experts do it? Can you use a metal detector to find gold? The answer is, yes, you can. The best way to find gold is with the help of a metal detector. There is particularly a type of metal detector that is exclusively made for the job to search for gold.

The owner and founder of Garrett metal detectors, Charles Garrett wrote a book named “You can find gold: With a Metal Detector”. So, “Can gold be detected by a metal detector?” is no longer a question. The answer is way too obvious.

Table of Contents [Hide]

• 1 Going on First Hunt with Metal Detectors
• 2 Can gold be detected by a metal detector? How do Metal Detectors Detect Gold?
• 3 Going on a Gold Hunt with a Metal Detector
  • 3.1 Know where to look for
  • 3.2 Gathering Necessary Equipment
  • 3.3 Start the Gold Hunt with Metal Detector
  • 3.4 When the detector beeps
  • 3.5 Keep the environment clean
• 4 Do metal detectors detect titanium?
• 5 How do metal detectors at the airport work?
• 6 Conclusion

Going on First Hunt with Metal Detectors

If you’re a beginner, the first thing you should is to grab the basic idea of treasure hunt; it needs great skill and luck to find a big catch. You can’t practice success, but you certainly can sharpen your skills in hunting by practicing. Various manufacturers sell several models for beginners you can try one of them.

Experts suggest that you first try finding buried coins with a metal detector. You can test in public places. Or you can make your garden a test area for your metal detector. Bury coins, bottle caps etc. and other small metals and see if you can find all of them by your metal detector.

Read also: Best Gold Digger Metal Detector

Can gold be detected by a metal detector? How do Metal Detectors Detect Gold?

Metal detectors can sense metal, i.e. gold even in extensively deep underground or water and can give you an exact location of the gold. It uses the force of electromagnetism to detect metal or metallic objects like gold and jewellery. Can you find a gold ring with a metal detector? Yes, you can. And I’ll explain to you “how”.

There are various types of metal detector available to serve different purposes. There’s the walk-through metal detector that is used in airport, courthouses, public buildings, and other guarded places. Then there’s handheld model which is one of the most common ones that we see around us and vehicle-mounted metal detectors which serves the purpose of excursions that are carried out in huge capacity.

A typical metal detector mainly consists control box, shaft and search oil. And those metal detectors use technologies such as Very Low Frequency (VLF), Plus Induction or Beat Frequency Oscillation.

Supposing that you are a beginner and don’t have much budget for a metal detector, then it is wise for you to consider a VLF model. It emits a moderate frequency of 3 to 70 kHz. So it can quickly detect coins, jewellery and other metallic objects. Best one if you’re pursuing this for a hobby.

And you can check out Pulse Induction metal detector when you’re a pro in this field and have a higher budget. It is mainly built for gold nugget detecting and can sense through maximum depth underground.

Supposing that you’re a beginner and most possibly don’t a have a high budget just yet, you must be looking for a VLF model. Let’s explain how they sense gold and metals for you. In this model, at the end of its handle, there is around head wire wrapped by a coil; it is called a transmitter coil.

The battery of the metal detector supplies electricity in the loop which generates a magnetic field around the coil. Another coil which is at the head of the metal detector is connected to a circuit that ultimately connects to a loudspeaker.

So, when you move the metal detector closer to a metallic object such as gold, it creates an electric field which initiates another magnetic field inside the gold. The new magnetic field overlaps with the magnetic field produced by the detector and generates a surge of electricity through the receiver coil to receiver circuit then the loudspeaker and eventually sets of the “beep beep” alarm.

The closer you are to the gold or metal the louder the sound will be. Because the closer the gold is to the metal detector, the stronger magnetic field will be created in the receiver coil, and more electricity will flow to the loudspeaker; naturally, it will make a louder sound.

Read also: How to clean old coins without devaluing them?

Going on a Gold Hunt with a Metal Detector

Know where to look for

Before going out for a gold rush, learn where to look for gold You’ll have to do a bit of research primarily, such as checking geological survey websites or ask the national or provincial office to provide you with maps or information.

While searching for places, choose a place where there have been previous successes in case of a gold hunt, since it is highly unlikely for anyone to discover a new gold mine. Once you have chosen a land, get permission before you search from the respective authority.

Gathering Necessary Equipment

First, choose the right metal detector for you. Since we have already explained what metal is best for what job, you can easily select one suitable for you; you can also visit metal detector reviews to help you decide.

VLF models filter most of the junk metals, so it gets easier to concentrate on gold. To prevent manually adjust the control after every while, you can use automatic ground balance control; following the iron contents in the rock it changes automatically.

And to determine the depth of your desired object you can use a detector that accurately displays the depth. For different depth, you can try different sizes of coils designed for the model of your metal detector, big ones for greater depths and small ones for shallower depth.

Also, a pair of good headphones is a must to tune out outside noise and to hear even the slightest alarm the detector lets out. Since you’ll have to dig, take a spade and wear gloves to feel more comfortable while doing it. What if you want to search under water?

Do metal detectors go in water? Yes, some of them are designed to do so. You’ll need a different kit if you plan on hunting underwater. So don’t forget to check if your metal detector is waterproof before combing near wet places.

Start the Gold Hunt with Metal Detector

Pick a day that you can entirely spend for gold hunting. Finish packing the necessities and keep your to-do list empty for the day.

• After reaching the destination, set up the equipment, and get ready to search for gold.
• While combing the land, keep the detector a couple of feet away from you and try to keep the coils side to side and closer to the ground; try not to sweep in a pendulum pattern while you’re at it, it covers less area.
• To prevent missing small-deposits between your swept area, sweep in an overlapping manner. Also be prepared to dig deep if you catch any signal. It is highly unlikely for gold to be found in small swaths.
• Try to walk in a straight line and slowly. Be cautious of the metal detector to not to touch the ground; maintain more or less 6-inch distance from the surface and the sensor.

When the detector beeps

While sweeping the area if you hear the alarm go off, stop immediately. Slowly move the metal detector in small circles.

• Keep reading the metal detector as you move and pinpoint the exact location of the gold.
• After getting the location, cut a roughly six inches plug and dig as deep as your metal detector says. You can also try a pinpointer to get the exact possible location.
• Search through the plug you dug out for the metal. After finding it, search the hole again. Metals tend to congregate together, so there’s a chance of getting more.

Keep the environment clean

Try to do least possible damage to land and property. No one wants to see dug-ups all over their place.

• Put the plug back in its place. It takes only a few seconds. And the whole point of cutting plugs is also so you could put it back quickly and help the ground heal fast.
• Remember to remove all the trash you found in the area.

Finally, try to expect realistically. You can’t possibly hit big in your first hunt. Keep patience and enjoy the rush. You’re sure to have your expectations touched one day if you keep trying.

Read also: How to use a Metal Detector?

Do metal detectors detect titanium?

The answer is, no. Metal detectors usually don’t detect titanium. Well, we have already explained how the metal detector works. It doesn’t detect the metal. It identifies the magnetic field created by the metal.

Can titanium pass through a metal detector? Yes, without setting the alarm off. Since many people have titanium inside their body as medical implants, and it doesn’t usually get caught by the detector. Why does titanium not set off the metal detectors?

Because the magnetic field created by titanium is too weak to be detectable by the metal detector. There are different kinds of metal detectors made especially for titanium. While we are on this topic you may wonder; Do metal detectors detect aluminium?

Aluminium is a kind of an alloy. Even though it is a non-ferrous metal, it gets detected by the metal detector and thus sets the alarm off. Because it has a relatively high electromagnetic conductivity compared to other non-ferrous metal. What about the different type of metals?

Do metal detectors detect stainless steel? The thing is stainless steel has a very low magnetic permeability which makes it one of the most undetectable metals. It creates an electric conductivity of inferior quality to the magnet and to generate a signal strong enough of a ferrous metal the stainless steel has to be 50 percent larger.

How do metal detectors at the airport work?

We have all seen the metal detectors at the airport working innumerable times. We have to walk through it, and the checking is done. Most of the airport metal detectors use Pulse Induction technology in the metal detector. It uses a coil of wire on both sides working as transmitter and receiver; they send powerful pulses of current through the loop which creates a transient magnetic field.

Depending on the Manufacturer Company and model of the metal detector, it can emit 25 pulses per second to over 1000 pulses per second. When a metal passes through the metal detector, it interferes with the magnetic field created by the metal detector and generates a magnetic field of its own.

The interference makes the reflected pulse take longer to disappear. A sampling circuit monitors the length of the pulse; if it founds anything not usual, the alarm goes off.

What does the airport metal detector detect and what doesn’t? Do dental implants set off metal detectors at airports? Do metal detectors detect all guns? I’m sure you’ve been thinking those questions as you read this article further. We’ve already discussed what can get identified by the metal, i.e. ferrous metals and some non-ferrous metals like aluminium, copper etc.

And metals that rarely sets off the detector such as titanium, stainless steel etc. Since dental implants only use a little amount of titanium, it’s unlikely to set off the alarm, and you’re safe from annoying delays. On the other hand, guns are made of ferrous metals. The casing and bullets are too; eliminating the fact of non-metallic firearms, since they aren’t supposed to be reliable and also very rare.

So it is safe to say that metal detectors can detect all types of guns. How much is an airport detector? A typical walk-through metal detector costs as much as 1000$ to 30,000$. You can learn more about their price from visiting websites concerning walk-through metal detector.

Read also: Are metal detectors safe?

Conclusion

We are at the end of the article. If you have followed us till now, accept our gratitude. Since the whole point of this post was to get the answer of the question “Can gold be detected by a metal detector? ” and to make gold hunting by metal detector easier for you, while minimizing your confusion regarding this topic and guide you toward your interest. We hope that you purchase the best product suiting your need and achieve success beyond your imagination. Good luck with the gold rush!