Learn how to use it and it soon becomes apparent why gold occurs in certain areas. Check the various Radiometric surveys and it starts to become obvious what occurs where and why. Potassium indicates past Hydrothermal activity, Thorium is often a good indicator of Ironstone occurrence, Magnetic surveys also indicate mineralisation. It's worth bearing in mind though, if you choose to avoid mineralisation altogether, you may also be choosing to avoid finding gold
Many of the minerals that cause havoc with a metal detector, were either deposited where they are by the very same processes that put the gold there in the first place, or are the reason the gold precipitated out of solution and is where it is.
Personally, I think the take home message is to learn to live with the mineralisation by either adjusting your settings for it, putting on a DD coil, or buying a Z or similar that laughs at it at the push of a button.
Just my rusty bottle caps worth