Electronic Prospecting in Silver Country

[ProspectorBill]

Jim, an excellent report, the best I've seen on any forum. Congratulations on the Banner award. Regards, Bill

 

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[Jim Hemmingway]

Thanks very much Bill. I can't help but notice you've conferred a lot of "likes" to my posts and those are appreciated. I know you have a lot of interest in silver hunting in northeastern Ontario as per our discussions. If you're in the area Bill, look me up over at Loon Lake Trailer Park anytime after September 1st. Most of the folks there don't know my name, but everyone does know me as "Snowman"... so that is who you should ask for.

I'll be only too happy to guide you to more promising locations and help in any way possible. My wife visits several times each autumn. Aside from being a very able silver hunter, we'll not lack for baked goodies and hot coffee when in the field!!!

Good luck with everything, and hopefully we'll see you in silver country.

Jim.

PS: A big thankyou to "notarichman" and "JanThorCro" for your posts. They're very much appreciated. Sorry about the delay in acknowledging your posts... I rarely look at this site, but do use it as a place to store my articles for future reference to interested readers... Jim.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

The article and a few subsequent replies have been revised with additional or updated photos, and significant text as of today August 2016.

Jim.

 

[Lanny in AB]

If there's a way to confer the title of "Master Silver Hunter" to anyone, I'd say you've richly deserved it! Moreover, I don't know how you find the dedication to do the hard work required to "trench" to chase the silver you find. I thought using a pick to plow through stream cobble held in place by ancient channel clay was tough sledding! What you do to get the beautiful specimens you recovery is tough sledding for sure.

You have generated an art form in the way you display your pictures as well.

As for research, obviously you're a living textbook on how it should be done for you certainly find great places to chase the silver, and you find huge chunks of the metal compared to the much smaller nuggets of gold that I chase.

In addition, I notice you always take time to answer the questions others have to mentor them in their quest to chase the silver too: dedication and generosity, great attributes.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

If there's a way to confer the title of "Master Silver Hunter" to anyone, I'd say you've richly deserved it! Moreover, I don't know how you find the dedication to do the hard work required to "trench" to chase the silver you find. I thought using a pick to plow through stream cobble held in place by ancient channel clay was tough sledding! What you do to get the beautiful specimens you recovery is tough sledding for sure.

You have generated an art form in the way you display your pictures as well.

As for research, obviously you're a living textbook on how it should be done for you certainly find great places to chase the silver, and you find huge chunks of the metal compared to the much smaller nuggets of gold that I chase.

In addition, I notice you always take time to answer the questions others have to mentor them in their quest to chase the silver too: dedication and generosity, great attributes.

All the best,

Lanny

Hi Lanny… what a nice surprise to hear from you over here on the Canada sub-forum!!!! Thankyou for the above post, that is high praise indeed, most of it is undeserved of course, but still… those comments are most kind.

I believe that anyone who is consistently successful must put a lot of persistent research and hard work into it. And this certainly applies to you as well. By research, I don’t necessarily mean just bookwork or mapwork, but rather physically scouting out conditions in your area of interest, and general exploration of promising areas.

In closing, I will not post another non-detectable mineral photo this time. I’d better stick with silver seeing as how it’s a silver related thread. Nope… I think I’ll wait until I post again on your highly informative Gold & Bedrock: The Mysteries thread that readers can access at http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html.

If you haven’t read Lanny’s extraordinary collection of illustrated gold hunting articles that primarily focus on searching for placer gold in the wilds of beautiful British Columbia, you are missing a very entertaining read. More importantly, you are missing out on highly instructive, practical gold hunting techniques that Lanny so willingly shares with his readership......................... Jim Hemmingway.

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[Eyeball]

Electronic Prospecting in Silver Country

Introduction…

A prospecting trip to silver country is an opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors while pursuing your mineralogical interests in lovely rugged settings as depicted in the photo below. I recently enjoyed a highly successful two-month autumn prospecting trip to the area. This particular site is one of my favorites because it is more remote…a great place to detect silver in a quiet, relaxed environment.

You will see some quality recoveries from this trip including a 100+ pound silver and calcite sample that understandably may challenge some readers’ sense of credibility… such finds possibly are outside their experience or awareness. Nonetheless, while we don’t see them everyday, electronic prospectors searching in this area have recovered quite a number of such large pieces over the years. I was fortunate to locate a deposit that yielded not one, but several large museum quality silver specimens.

Many individuals and one mineral club were encountered this year at various sites. A number of these people did not experience much success at finding silver. We will discuss some basic metal detecting techniques and search strategies that should help them to be more successful. Perhaps some of these ideas will interest gold prospectors…please enjoy the read.

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Searching Mining Camps and Surrounding Terrain…

A determined electronic prospector can recover specimen grade silver even at the more accessible mining camps in silver country despite several decades of collecting pressure. There is very good potential for those that do their research, use equipment appropriate to site conditions, and are willing to do some pick and shovel work.

To be effective, prospecting-capable metal detectors are required that can help separate silver from iron trash, non-conductive iron-mineralized hotrocks, and conductive hotrocks such as pyrrhotite. My ground-balancing PI units…the Infinium and TDI Pro have limited but very real ability to separate nails and other elongated high conductive iron from silver, mostly do not respond to non-conductive hotrocks encountered in this area when properly ground-balanced, and achieve good depth in tough ferromagnetic ground minerals. My VLF units…the F75 and MXT achieve respectable depth even in moderately tough ground, and offer the benefits of target ID, discrimination, improved sensitivity to small stuff and to disseminated or spongy ore structures. These units are used for specific tasks as described below, and in the unlikely event that a unit should malfunction there is a capable replacement in the truck.

Ensure your VLF unit can operate in an all-metal motion mode for best depth in tough ground minerals, and can be ground-balanced either manually or using a GROUND GRAB feature as a minimum. The GROUND GRAB is accurate and convenient, and is an additional quick source of information when evaluating questionable signals. It makes searching hotrock areas properly ground-balanced in the all-metal motion mode more feasible because it takes only a moment to check out a suspect hotrock signal and then quickly rebalance to the ground and continue searching. The F75’s GROUND GRAB for example, does not permit ground-balancing below GB40 to prevent locking into metals at more conductive GB settings.

The diabase positive hotrocks encountered at one excavation site this year converted to neutral or slightly negative hotrock signals and lost their target ID when ground-balanced using the GROUND GRAB technique. Silver ores retained a good positive signal, but in the event there is any doubt about a target’s identity…revert to the rule of thumb and dig it. There is more to be said about this technique as to how concentric and DD coils respond to various minerals, for example conductive pyrrhotite, niccolite and other arsenides, rusty iron, and even variable responses from silver ores. But for now we’ll put this subject aside pending further evaluation in the field. This topic is later covered in detail at http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/canada/328287-electronic-prospecting-silver-country-part-2-a.html

Hotrock-level discrimination can be used to eliminate such signals and in some areas it is convenient to do so despite that it is less sensitive and less deepseeking than the all-metal motion mode. But the price is eliminating deeper silver in elevated magnetic susceptible iron mineral ground. The photo below is a prime example of silver that was predominately identified as iron in diabase hotrock environs. But it did not exhibit elongated iron’s typical target ID fluctuations when scanned from different directions, and when ground-balanced it retained a good positive signal with virtually no reduction in the GB readout. It was no positive hotrock and certainly didn’t look to me to be rusty iron. Those who rely on hotrock discrimination, iron audio tones, or exclusively on target ID would and likely did overlook it.

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Visual target ID and ground balance readouts using the GROUND GRAB feature on my F75 provide good sources of information in this application, but we should use some judgement. For example, positive diabase hotrocks read consistently in the upper iron range at target ID “14” but as noted…when ground-balanced they lose their positive signal, their target ID disappears, and there is always a small reduction in their ground balance readout. This is because diabase exists within a narrow GB range from GB86 to GB92 on an F75 using a 10” concentric elliptical coil. As a rule diabase is primarily a source of negative hotrocks, but that changes when the substrate is mostly comprised of diabase rocks. Other types of iron oxide hotrocks occupy much wider GB ranges and that also applies to conductive pyrrhotite rocks…hence ground-balancing to these may result in a dramatic GB reduction. The important point is that positive diabase hotrocks…non-conductive iron mineralized hotrocks…lose their positive signal when ground-balanced using the handy GROUND GRAB technique.

Rusted iron may reside at various target ID readings within the iron range, may jump in-and-out of the iron range, or may pretty much reside at various higher conductive readouts. Target ID depends on size and shape, coil sweep direction, state of oxidation and rust deposition into the surrounding soil, depth, and the ground mineral magnetic susceptible strength. That said, small iron normally occupies the iron range and larger iron tends to do otherwise in undisturbed field conditions. Deep large or compact iron is difficult to separate from large silver ore using VLF units until a good portion of the overburden is removed. Rusted iron produces a GB reduction but how much depends on conditions described above. For example, rusty drillrods in-situ can produce a dramatic GB reduction down into the low GB40s on the F75…an additional and valuable piece of information when evaluating target signals.

The photo below depicts a good quality silver specimen found with the F75…all-metal motion mode, bare threshold, near max sensitivity, GB at 86, Fe3O4 at 0.3% EM. This piece is quite heavy for its size. The areas shaded slightly gray indicate massive silver immediately beneath the surface…this rock would benefit from an acid wash to expose more silver.

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By comparison, silver ores can read anywhere from the iron range to silver dime conductivity. Natural silver can also read in the silver quarter range, but these are so extremely rare as to be of no practical consequence. Whether silver ores target ID in the iron range depends on variables such as target size and depth, the proximity of iron junk, and the substrate’s ferromagnetic susceptible strength. When ground-balanced silver retains a positive signal and target ID, but GB reductions tend to be a bit unpredictable in tough ground and where non-silver inclusions occur in silver ores. Niccolite and cobaltite ores normally produce dramatic GB reductions. If you know you’re searching in even moderately tough ground…remove some material to acquire a stronger signal where necessary…and further evaluate suspect signals by sweeping the coil from different directions. Silver doesn't normally change, but elongated iron target ID usually fluctuates. When evaluating suspect signals consider the target size and shape in addition to strong target ID shifts that result from iron’s conductive and magnetic properties.

Below is a handsome example of ruby silver combined with native silver in a calcite matrix. Ruby silver comes in several forms. These are silver sulfide (sulfosalt) minerals with variable silver content on occasion combined with some minor copper replacement, sulfur, antimony and / or arsenic content. The silver content ranges from roughly 60% to nearly 70% by weight depending on the type of ruby silver. The ruby silver in the photo below is a fresh pyrargyrite surface that extends completely through the rock, whereas the reader’s left-hand side of the rock is comprised of native silver in calcite…a rare and unique specimen.

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Discrimination is sometimes essential to searching sites so replete with small bits and shards of metallic iron that searching in the all-metal motion mode is just not a viable option. It is better to find some silver in these conditions rather than spend a frustrating day dealing with countless blaring signals from bits of iron wire and small tacks and nails. After all…electronic prospecting is supposed to be rewarding and fun.

Setting discrimination levels in prospecting applications depends on the targets you want to eliminate, and the size and conductivity range of non-ferrous targets you want to find. The most likely procedure is to bury a few representative targets at reasonable depths and determine what control settings will get the job done to your satisfaction. Over highly mineralized substrates, target ID and discrimination will not work reliably and detection depth markedly suffers. Good silver can read as iron even at modest depths. In such environs if you want to get it all…you will have to dig it all…but this modus operandi is an instructive, eye-opening experience. Wherever possible stick with the all-metal motion mode and use both the target ID and GROUNDGRAB features to advantage, in addition to removing overburden until you are satisfied about a target’s identity.

The photo below depicts a quality silver ore found at good depth…an Infinium hi-lo zero discrimination signal. This specimen is very heavy for its size and the native

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For general field searching of specimen quality silver and ore pockets, I normally use a ground-balancing PI unit and reasonably large coil for maximum depth and coverage where trash levels are tolerable. Both my TDI Pro and Infinium are able to separate some iron trash from native silver…a real work and timesaver…but do it differently.





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Suggestions for General Searching…

I increasingly tend towards a search strategy that might loosely be described as “pocket” hunting. Over tailings this might more aptly be described as locating spills or unintentional deposits of good material. This strategy accounts for much of my success searching mining camps in recent times.

Locate such deposits by searching sites most likely to have experienced unintentional dumping of good material. That means areas where valuable silver was handled and transported. Look for indications of surface veins, shafts, and storage areas where silver was graded, moved, and sometimes inadvertently misplaced. There is ample research information that can be accessed with modern computers, aside from local historical archives. Photos or drawings are sometimes available that show original building sites and other facilities at many of the now abandoned mining camps in this area. These are especially helpful to pinpoint areas where you may wish to focus your detecting efforts.

When a deposit is indicated, for example by multiple silver signals concentrated in a specific area…or visually as described below…do not be content to merely recover what are essentially surface signals and move on. You may well be standing over a good deposit that could extend down for several feet. Sample by removing some surface material and carefully recheck the excavation for signals. If there are no signals it doesn't hurt to repeat this step…yes it is hard work but well worthwhile if paydirt is located. I can’t emphasize enough to take your time with this job.



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A lot of time was spent within rifle shot of this scene. At the day’s end I’d frequently go down to the small lake to clean my equipment and wash-up. Two playful, inquisitive otters live there. They would go for a last swim each day at dusk. Over time we got semi-acquainted and they became less afraid and more curious about me. One evening near the end of the trip one of them approached to within about 25 yards, coming out of the water to sit on some rocks to watch me…probably wondering what all the fuss was about. I didn’t see or hear the little prankster at first, but did notice that something was different about the shoreline. I saw this big “rock” and was only a bit surprised when it gracefully slipped into the water…

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That’s it…other than to thank everyone for spending some time here. Comments are welcome. For newcomers to the hobby… no question is awkward or foolish… so don’t hesitate to ask it.

Jim Hemmingway
February 2012​

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Hello Jim,
I trust Christmas has found you Happy and well satisfied spending your time with family and friends.

I have read this post again, and each time new information is gleaned when I do.
I read and re-read them with pleasure and anticipation to find new information that seeps out like honey from a hive to learn from, and I especially liked the information on the various settings and methods of detecting.
Though not specific to my particular machines, the information is no less beneficial and I wanted to thank you once more for the very well thought out and written technical views you have given us to learn from.

I am by no means illiterate when it comes to technology, but in this niche of detecting, any new info is gratefully accepted and tested to the last bit possible (as far as it goes without walking around in silver, lol).

Winter is exactly the time to apply this newly gained knowledge to experiment with, to be put to good use when sampling and locating begins in the spring.
I believe that a lot of the enjoyment of operating in this hobby comes from the experiences of others who share, and the friendships and camaraderie that go with it.
I know I sound like I've been "out there" for years, and that wouldn't be accurate, but I take everything to heart and am anxious to get rolling in the spring to start all over again and that's for sure.

Thank you so much for these threads and posts, best regards, John.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hello Jim,
I trust Christmas has found you Happy and well satisfied spending your time with family and friends.

I have read this post again, and each time new information is gleaned when I do.
I read and re-read them with pleasure and anticipation to find new information that seeps out like honey from a hive to learn from, and I especially liked the information on the various settings and methods of detecting.
Though not specific to my particular machines, the information is no less beneficial and I wanted to thank you once more for the very well thought out and written technical views you have given us to learn from.

I am by no means illiterate when it comes to technology, but in this niche of detecting, any new info is gratefully accepted and tested to the last bit possible (as far as it goes without walking around in silver, lol).

Winter is exactly the time to apply this newly gained knowledge to experiment with, to be put to good use when sampling and locating begins in the spring.
I believe that a lot of the enjoyment of operating in this hobby comes from the experiences of others who share, and the friendships and camaraderie that go with it.
I know I sound like I've been "out there" for years, and that wouldn't be accurate, but I take everything to heart and am anxious to get rolling in the spring to start all over again and that's for sure.

Thank you so much for these threads and posts, best regards, John.

Hi John... thankyou very much for those kind and thoughtful words. I hope these articles will be of some help to you. There is much more specific technical information presented in the follow-up "Electronic Prospecting in Silver Country Part 2 that discusses basic detector and coil applications for hunting silver.

Meanwhile John, I apologize for being so late in replying to you. I have had other things on the go recently that have very much limited my time available to participate on the forums. It was mere chance that prompted me to check the "Canada" forum tonight, and I'm glad that I did see your post. Thankyou... spring is only a few months away now!!!

Jim.

 

[Eyeball]

Hi John... thankyou very much for those kind and thoughtful words. I hope these articles will be of some help to you. There is much more specific technical information presented in the follow-up "Electronic Prospecting in Silver Country Part 2 that discusses basic detector and coil applications for hunting silver.

Meanwhile John, I apologize for being so late in replying to you. I have had other things on the go recently that have very much limited my time available to participate on the forums. It was mere chance that prompted me to check the "Canada" forum tonight, and I'm glad that I did see your post. Thankyou... spring is only a few months away now!!!

Jim.

Well Jim,
It seems you are not the only one who has other things to tend to.
There are things in life that require our attention more than having fun spending time composing answers or going out searching for answers to our quest for precious things.

I am fortunate to be able to grab my boat and some swinging gear this coming two weeks, and visit two Daughters and their families, including two grand Daughters with bithdays in Carleton Place and Ottawa.
Of course after the Birthdays of both grand daughters, and being in a decent area for some MD'ing, I may just treat myself to a few days of doing just that, before going to the other areas North of my own home area to do the original planned scouring and digging after some nearly impossible gold, sassy or not. Others found it, I may too.
I am almost looking forward more to the boat rides than the actual labor of love in that respect.
In any case, I will enjoy the outings.
Thank you much for your replies, late or not, and I hope to still get them about 15 years from now.
Regards, John.

 

[Thinkofsomethingkwik]

Hi Jim,

Thank you for such a delightful read, my friends & I are now planning a camping trip to some old silver mines in northern Ontario!

Just wanted to let you know I derived alot of joy from your works and it's people like you that make this hobby and passion such a joy to learn

All the best in life

Riley

 

[Thinkofsomethingkwik]

As well,

I have a gpx 4000, should I bring this to hunt silver? (I'm new to the hobby & this was a great deal for me). I also have a makro multi Kruzer and a Tesoro tiger shark. I'd be happy to purchase whatever you reccomended

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

As well,

I have a gpx 4000, should I bring this to hunt silver? (I'm new to the hobby & this was a great deal for me). I also have a makro multi Kruzer and a Tesoro tiger shark. I'd be happy to purchase whatever you reccomended

Thankyou for those kindly remarks Riley!!! I apologize for not replying earlier to you as I’ve been inundated with chores around home, and pressed for time this spring.

The GPX should serve you well at most of the abandoned minesites where ferrous trash is not too abundant. Initially try to locate yourself on reasonably quiet ground and give yourself a reasonable chance at success by concentrating on and investigating the weaker, more isolated signals. These will frequently be relatively deeper target signals, and many will be ferrous trash.

Don’t become discouraged with digging trash. Always keep in mind that without iron junk signals masking good silver and otherwise distracting or discouraging detectorists, much more of the available, detectable silver would have been found and removed long ago.

On the above note, also realize that there has been a lot of detecting pressure for decades in that area, a number of local hunters continue to detect those sites from spring snowmelt until winter freeze-up each November. Much of the larger surface silver is long gone, that is to say in the top twenty inches or so.

Your GPX will detect large silver to that depth and more just depending on the coil type and size used and the substrate conditions. The trade-off is to use a larger coil where feasible, but employ a smaller coil where surface conditions / trash levels make it necessary to do so. Consider flagging your target signals the first few days in the field, and check target ID on them with your VLF detector. Remove surface overburden on such signals to acquire good strong signals that are necessary to have any confidence in the target ID. Now, undoubtedly you will dig some deep holes for larger or flat iron junk that will target ID as non-ferrous, but generally flagging and checking signals first will reduce some unnecessary digging.

Finally, utilize your VLF unit (Kruzer) with a small coil over trashy ground. I generally prefer a 10-inch elliptical DD coil for detecting in trash conditions, but you may justifiably employ an even smaller coil. In any case, don’t use larger coils over trashy ground, because you will not be able to identify individual targets when there are multiple signals under a large coil. Try spending an hour or so over a selected area and see if you can recover some small silver as pictured below. If not, then it will be time to move elsewhere and try again.

That’s about it for now Riley. All the very best with this adventure to the north country, good luck and good hunting……………….Jim.

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