Need help to detect gold bars 4-6 feet deep

[mulletator]

Hey guys, I was recently contacted by a local person with a personal treasure story.

Apparently this woman's ex-boyfriend buried a box with several gold bars in their back yard. It was meant to be a surprise for her but he tragically died in a car crash and didn't get the opportunity to present her with it. She learned of this recently after his death.

She knows which property it's located on but the area is 1/4 acre in size and she figures it's buried 4-6 feet deep. There are apparently several gold bars the sized of Hershey bars. There is supposed to be other treasures but she doesn't know what those are. She doesn't know what kind of container this stuff is buried in. If it was metal we could find it pretty easily with a magnetometer but she's not sure.

What technologies are available to detect at that depth? I'm not aware of any detectors that can reliably go that deep.

 

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[mulletator]

Ground radar.....450mhz antennae.....anybody that does utility location....just google your area....I ran a gssi sir 3000 for years....they should find it in a few hours....and charge about $350 an hour

I've been leaning toward GPR for this. I don't have any experience with it though. Do you know if it can detect something the size of a suitcase at 4-6 feet deep?

 

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[TheGreenBoy]

Any decent PI with somewhat larger coil or any good two box detector could do it. Check out Golden mask Deep Hunter or any simmilar. I have a DBP2010 PI which could certenly do it, where are you from?

 

[rogueaviation]

Any decent PI with somewhat larger coil or any good two box detector could do it. Check out Golden mask Deep Hunter or any simmilar. I have a DBP2010 PI which could certenly do it, where are you from?

I didn't even think of the PI machines. Nice!

The Garrett ATX is supposed to go pretty deep. The Brits say 3m, which seems like a lot, but I found a BB like a foot deep one time, so they could be right.

 

[ticndig]

A simple probing rod is an effective and affordable way to start . once dug the ground will be softer than the ground in the area that has not been disturbed. when you hit a soft spot do some digging .

 

[99thpercentile]

I would rent a Geonics EM61-MK2 from Exploration Instruments and you will be done in a few hours and find anything like you described down to 8 or 10 ft.

 

[mulletator]

I would rent a Geonics EM61-MK2 from Exploration Instruments and you will be done in a few hours and find anything like you described down to 8 or 10 ft.

That sounds like the right tool for the job. I'll contact the manufacturer on Monday and see if I can rent one. It doesn't say if it will detect gold but it does say "non-ferrous metals".

 

[mulletator]

Any decent PI with somewhat larger coil or any good two box detector could do it. Check out Golden mask Deep Hunter or any simmilar. I have a DBP2010 PI which could certenly do it, where are you from?

I'll look into that. I doubt they'll detect gold at 4-6 feet though. I'm in BC, Canada, this treasure is located on Vancouver Island.

 

[signal_line]

I'll look into that. I doubt they'll detect gold at 4-6 feet though. I'm in BC, Canada, this treasure is located on Vancouver Island.

A pulse induction unit is lower cost and they go deep

 

[TheGreenBoy]

I'll look into that. I doubt they'll detect gold at 4-6 feet though. I'm in BC, Canada, this treasure is located on Vancouver Island.

For the reference, i have a DBP2010 PI which is an average decent PI and using two coils, a 36x38cm oval one and 1,2m x 1,2m frame coil. I can readly detect an helmet size object at 2m and a metal box with 10cm in diameter at good 1,5m with the small coil and the abowe mentioned box at 2m with the large frame coil, with the maximum of 4m for large targets. The box with several gold bars seems a fairly large target, so the detection should not be a problem, larger problem might pose the detection of all other metal garbage downt to 4m.
You should look for the detectors that comes as a separate box with a larger frame coils with it, such as Deep Hunter, rather than the "detector style" ATX.
Too bad you are at the opposite side of the world otherwise i could help you with my machine.

 

[TheGreenBoy]

I would rent a Geonics EM61-MK2 from Exploration Instruments and you will be done in a few hours and find anything like you described down to 8 or 10 ft.

Good advice. The "time domain" detector looks like a PI to me. Well, every PI with a single sempling point circuit (chip version of PIs) is a "time domain"

 

[bc5391]

I have tried it. We've done scientific trials as well as studied the research of numerous other scientific studies on the subject. Not to mention that I've interviewed hundreds of dowsers and not one of them can show any evidence that they've ever legitimately found gold using dowsing rods.

It doesn't work, not even a little bit. That's not my opinion that's a fact that has been proven over and over again.

As I said, I wish it did work. It would make gold exploration 1000 times easier.

so you are saying people who dowse for water are fakes

 

[Tpmetal]

Gpr will show any disturbed areas in the soil. I would go that route

 

[99thpercentile]

Gpr will show any disturbed areas in the soil. I would go that route

I strongly suggest against this. GPR is a great technique for detecting non-metallic targets, but if the target is metallic I would always use either a metal detector or magnetometer, depending on whether the target is ferrous or non-ferrous, before a GPR. GPR is very site dependent, whereas the metal detectors and magnetometers are much less site dependent.

 

[SD51]

Is there any concern with the fact that (supposedly) the Gold bars are inside a box of unknown material which will most likely not allow the Gold to give off any ions into the ground media? Will the equipment suggested on this thread "punch" through this barrier and sense the Gold?

 

[99thpercentile]

Is there any concern with the fact that (supposedly) the Gold bars are inside a box of unknown material which will most likely not allow the Gold to give off any ions into the ground media? Will the equipment suggested on this thread "punch" through this barrier and sense the Gold?

I'm not sure what you mean when you say the gold can't give off ions. This doesn't make sense from a physics point of view. Metal detectors work by generating a primary magnetic field through a coil of wire, this magnetic field moves away from the coil and interacts with materials that have differing electrical conductivity or magnetic susceptibility. When the field interacts with a material it generates a secondary magnetic field that then propagates away from the target and it detected by the receiver coil.

If the gold was in a plastic or wooded box (essentially non-conductive and non-magnetic) it would have no effect on the response from the gold as seen by a metal detector. If the gold was in a metal safe made of iron (electrically conductive and magnetic) the combination of the safe and the gold would have a much larger response than gold which is conductive and non-magnetic.

 

[pepperj]

Good advice. The "time domain" detector looks like a PI to me. Well, every PI with a single sempling point circuit (chip version of PIs) is a "time domain"

There's a fellow in Parksville that had a like new White's PI for sale a while back.
Might be a lead if you inquire around there.

 

[signal_line]

Only a little bit. I've never used one. It sounds like something that might work for this job. I'd like to hear from someone who has actually used one for this purpose before I go that route.

My two cents here—something sounds not right. I am highly skeptical of this. Really? —a guy buries gold as to not let his wife know? Sounds like stolen goods and when you deal with this type of people you don’t know. Sure, I admit I don’t know but I’m telling you to be extra careful.

 

[Lost In The Forest]

GPR is always a good option. Something like the oerad dipolo should show any ground disturbances at that depth.

 

[TheGreenBoy]

As fare as PIs are concernd, the detecrion of the target like this should not be a problem, regardles the container used. However, if the iron / steel box is used, or a wooden box with iron strips this may or may not affect the discrimination circuit. For the chiper PIs, in price range from 1000 to 4000 EUR, the discrimination at the abowe mentioned depth is more a machine cosmetics than any relevant information, so little difference is expectet there. Better and more expecieve detectors have more elaborate discrimination, and frankly i do not know how would it show up.

 

[TheGreenBoy]

I am somethimes hired to search for a stuff when the "reliable" information is known, or somethimes even with a reliable eye witness. I would like to point out that the thime alone changes the perspective significantly, even without the warious interests meddling in. You should consider this.