Salt Flats Detecting ?

[Ridge Runner]

Can someone tell me if a VLF works on the Salt Flats, I know they work on the Dry sand at the beach and that a lot of VLFs have a Salt switch, so I was wondering that seeing as the Salt Flats are fairly dry how would a VLF work there, Being Salt based the GB on a VLF would set it's self Lower but what this does is desensitizes the VLF at lower GB setting, So real Tiny bits might not be detected,

Also what about coil choice ?. I have heard that with a PI Coil selection is also another thing that has to be taken in to account, some of you must have some good stories to share, My reason for asking is On Aussie Gold Hunters they head back out to the Salt Flats again this week and because it is not a thing that comes up to often here,

Thanks, HH.

John.

 

[Wishfull]

Mmm salt flats. There are lots of those around my area. Anyone know if that is worth looking at like RR said.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Mmm salt flats. There are lots of those around my area. Anyone know if that is worth looking at like RR said.

Well when they filmed Aussie Gold Hunters they said that someone pulled a whooper out and that young couple were getting some in the day time but because of the heat they used head torches and detected at night.

John.

 

[AtomRat]

From what I've read, vic salt lakes are a no no for swinging or digging in but I've also heard similar stories abouts nugs

 

[Ridge Runner]

From what I've read, vic salt lakes are a no no for swinging or digging in but I've also heard similar stories abouts nugs

Well I was wondering about that but I am sure they said that they had a permit to detect there, But someone had been there and dug a test pit with a backhoe or something like that,

HH.

John.

 

[user 4485]

There are people in WA that detect the salt lakes/flats with some success. Seems to be more prevalent there than other states
Like most detecting I assume it would be very area dependant as I've heard of people using a wide range of methods/settings/coils to enable them to do it. PI detectors seem to be the weapon of choice using the salt timings on the GPX etc. although I've seen people that don't like the salt timings & will run in other timings with lowered settings. I've read where some people even use small mono coils around the edges etc. but I would think that mono use would be fairly limited?
More extreme areas or if using older machines without salt timings etc. there are people that swear by the Anti Interference/Salt coils & even using a standard DD coil in cancel for the most extreme spots. You would lose a lot of sensitivity & depth using these so again like most detecting where there is a gain in stability there is also a loss in those other areas.
Haven't heard anything about VLF's being used but you would think that a machine that handled dry or wet beach work easily might work ok. The other factor though would be the probability of other minerals present in salt lake/flat areas that would also have a detrimental effect? Either way I think to handle the salt & any other minerals present you would always be running with a reduction in sensitivity/depth even with a salt capable VLF.
Hopefully one of the WA members might be able to shed some more light on it for us.
With all this saturated ground around on the Eastern side at the moment it wouldn't surprise me at all if a lot of the issues people seem to be experiencing are due to salt. There are a lot of high salinity areas in Australia & from what I've been led to believe saturated ground can bring the salt up causing problems?

 

[Ridge Runner]

You might be right Matt, I saw the Girl with what looked like an 11" red Coiltek round mono/DD, maybe 8" +/- on her 5k and the guy was not using his GPZ this week and was running a 5k with what looked like a pretty large red Coiltek elliptical at 16" from front to back maybe bigger, So that's 2 things you got right, and another thing I noticed was once they cracked the thin White Crust ( About 1/4" to an 1" thick ), The dirt underneath was Very Red, For the first part I would have thought that the Salt would be trying to neutralize the Iron readings from the Red Clay but once you crack through that White layer then the Clay would react just like the rest of the red clay areas but just to a slightly lesser extent, Or maybe the Iron in the Clay and the Salt Oppose each other where the detector does not know what to do and just fights the stronger of the two evils,

I will watch it again at lunch time and see if I can see where they are,

Thanks mate,

John.

 

[Ridge Runner]

From what I've read, vic salt lakes are a no no for swinging or digging in but I've also heard similar stories abouts nugs

They are Detecting Lake Goongarrie. WA.

Hope that helps.

John.

 

[Wishfull]

I'm no geologist but would it stand to reason that salt lakes being the lowest part of the land then wouldn't gold concentrate there. Or is that too simplistic.

 

[Ridge Runner]

I'm no geologist but would it stand to reason that salt lakes being the lowest part of the land then wouldn't gold concentrate there. Or is that too simplistic.

I don't see why not either but before the salt layers would have built up I guess the gold might be a bit deep in some areas, They excavate an area in the region that was 144 Sq Km but that young could are still pulling them out So I would give it a bash aye,

John.

 

[Wishfull]

Well like I said there are some salt flats near me so ynot

 

[nuggetino]

I never had much luck on salt lakes though someone I spoke to in WA found plenty with a 4500 and large 18"? AI coil. A tip he gave me was to detect on the lake infront of the inlets to salt lakes

 

[Ridge Runner]

I never had much luck on salt lakes though someone I spoke to in WA found plenty with a 4500 and large 18"? AI coil. A tip he gave me was to detect on the lake infront of the inlets to salt lakes

Funny you should say that, I was just about to suggest that to Wishfull, But I would be checking out 3 or 400 meters either side of the inlets and Grid the area,

A person would need a good camper and a nice shady spot to set up or that place will cook ya, lol.

John.

 

[Wishfull]

Trouble is atm all the salt flats are as wet as because of all the rain we have had, so that will have to wait until they dry out unfortunately.

 

[nuggetino]

Would you say southern salt lakes best in summer and northern best in winter? Was up in Leonora in summer and nothing but thunder and rain. Was a boggy mess.

 

[DrDuck]

I've seen a few links to salt lake detecting over the years.

Here is some info that might make interesting reading.

http://cargocollective.com/martinzaugg/filter/gold-nuggets/prospecting-for-gold-in-Australia

http://www.gold-prospecting-wa.com/salt-lake-metal-detecting.html

There was a very interesting site Janet's gold nuggets, with good stories of salt lake gold, but Janet died of cancer about three years ago, and the site is no longer active.

However, the internet archive comes to the rescue, and you can access various archived versions of the site there.

The stories on this page make good reading, particularly the one about lake calamity.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130313132536/http://www.janetsgoldnuggets.com/stories.htm

Here is the archive of the front page, some of the nuggets and crystalline gold were found in salt lakes, and the pictures are very nice indeed.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130330023725/http://www.janetsgoldnuggets.com/

 

[Redfin]

Janet was a legend, the Queen of the lakes.
They broke the mould after her.