Massive Gold Nugget Found with GPX-4000

A long-time detector operator in Australia has found a massive nugget weighing over 110oz (3.5kg) in Victoria's famous Golden Triangle!
He was detecting in a well-known area that was thought to have been "worked-out", as it had produced many nuggets with previous detectors. However, he was keen to see how his new GPX-4000 would handle the mineralised ground, and soon stopped on a faint signal which was begging to be dug up.
After digging through over 2 foot of gravels and then entering a rich red clay zone, he started to question if he was just chasing ground noise, but as the signal was still present he continued to dig. After digging a further foot through the clay, expanding the hole as he went, when he passed the 3ft mark he finally saw that magical glint of gold colour at the bottom of the hole and thought he had found a nice 5oz piece. However, as he kept digging around the nugget to prevent any damage to it, the hole just kept getting bigger, and a huge nugget eventually came out of the hole that later weighed in at a little over 110 oz's!!!
It is estimated to have a value of close to AUD $200,000. A very nice Christmas present indeed.
The question on everyone's lips now is: "How many more huge nuggets are sitting out there, overlooked by previous detectors??"

 

1 Explorer SE + 1 GPX 4000 = 70 GOLD CELTIC COINS!!

Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to find a hoard of Celtic coins with my two detecting buddies Edward and Andrew Clarkson. The field of the discovery was mentioned in a book I had been using for research and even contained a map with an 'X' to mark the spot of a previous discovery. So after gaining permission we set off to the field with our Explorer SEs.

 

On arriving at the field we sat trying to relate the old map to the modern landscape realising some of the hedgerows still existed today. We walked onto the field to where we thought the 'x' indicated the find spot of the earlier find and sure enough started to find gold coins within a few minutes.

The Explorers soon found 33 coins that first day and then more coins each day we visited the site over the following months until we were no longer able to find any more.

The total was now at 49, but we knew there had to be more. The Explorer fitted with a 15" coil had found coins laying flat to a depth of 26cm, but the plough soil in places was 35cm deep, so we knew there must be more coins, deeper or laying on edge.

We tried other makes of so called deep detectors but none of these fulfilled their promise. Finally we acquired the new Minelab GPX4000 and fitted it with the commander 18" mono coil. We chose the 18" mono for brute power and we weren't disappointed!

WOW what a machine!!! After using the GPX for three days the total jumped to 70. The signals from these extra 21 coins were loud and clear and some were at depths of over 30cm, but more importantly the incredible sensitivity of the GPX managed to get the coins laying on edge at depth.

I would like to thank Minelab for making such brilliant machines. I know the Explorer SE and GPX4000 will bring me more good luck in the years to come.

Gordon Heritage, UK