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Date Posted: 15:38:13 09/20/03 Sat
Author: Steve Herschbach
Subject: Moore Infinium Gold

No, I did not spell "more" wrong. This post is about some mining claims some partners and I picked up this summer at Moore Creek, Alaska. Been awhile since I posted here so I figured I'd better post a more "deluxe" version here than what I posted at the Alaska Gold Forum. I've got lots of hours and lots of gold with my Minelab GP 3000 this summer but on this trip revisited my old friend the Garrett Infinium.

I snuck off to Moore Creek last week for four days with my father Bud Herschbach and partner John Pulling. We spent quite a bit of our time staking more ground in the area, but also got in some detecting.

I did better than I expected, as I did not really make this trip to find gold. But my hot streak from my previous visit continued, and I ended up with some nice nuggets. One nice thing about larger nuggets is that I actually only found eight nuggets total... but they added up to 5.37 ounces.

Previous visits to Moore creek have proven that PI detectors have a distinct edge due to the mix of different hot rocks. This trip I favored my Garrett Infinium. I did use my Minelab GP 3000 also but I wanted to give the Infinium a good try at Moore Creek. I like the Garrett in particular for working in the rain (it's totally waterproof) and in thick brush. Garrett has released a coil cover for the 14" coil which came in handy, as the open coil design would normally like to hang up on low lying brush.

The Infinium ran quiet in the mixed hot rocks at Moore Creek, with only a couple that gave a signal (I brought them home to check out). Hi-lo tones were either gold or slivers of steel. Larger pieces of steel and iron, including nails, gave a lo-hi tone. Theoretically a large enough nugget might give a lo-hi tone but all mine have been steel so far or aluminum cans.

The results with the Infinium were seven nuggets totaling 4.11 ounces of gold (picture below). The largest nugget is 1.5 oz and the second largest 1 oz. I did find one nugget with the GP 3000 that weighed 1.26 oz. By the way, although I'm calling these nuggets, they are really more properly termed gold/quartz specimens (in my opinion). These have been cleaned to remove the rust staining they pick up from sitting in the soil for ????? years and so reflect the actual color of the quartz better than previous pictures I've posted. The enclosing rock is grayish quartz and sometimes bits of the quartz monzonite that the quartz veins are eroding out of. Quartz monzonite is a "salt & pepper" looking type of igneous rock, much like granite in appearance.

My father scored a couple nuggets totaling 2/3 oz with his Tesoro Lobo and John got about 2.5 oz with his Fisher Gold Bug 2. But both are now looking to get Infiniums for next year. The Minelab is a fine machine, but they are more comfortable with the price/performance ratio of the Infinium. Lots of bang for under $1000 and simple to operate. So it looks like there will be lots of Infinium gold to report from Moore Creek next summer.

Other than that, the weather was as fine as it gets for fall in Alaska. A couple drizzly days, but a couple really nice, cool, clear blue days WITH NO BUGS to make up for the wet weather. I wish we could get more days like that. Hard freeze one night, so winter is soon to arrive in Interior Alaska.

Forced to choose between my Infinium or my GP 3000 for serious prospecting I'd go with the GP 3000. The main reason is the vast coil selection. That, and I do believe the Minelabs offer more control than the basic tuning offered on the Garrett. But for those that are looking for 85% of the Minelab bang for 1/2 or less of the Minelab price the Garrett is a viable alternative. If waterproof design is a plus, then the Garrett may even be the better choice. I use mine for underwater detecting also, and have paid for it with jewelry finds alone.

I'm lucky enough to be into metal detecting enough to justify owning both. I don't see how any serious detectorist can have just one detector. I actually own five at the moment. It pays to have the right tools at hand for the job, and no one detector does it all perfectly.

My opinions only, of course! I just wanted to post this as I am about the only Minelab user on the planet that seems to have anything nice to say about the Infinium. The two units make a good pair for me... well, them, plus my trusty Gold Bug 2.

Steve Herschbach
Moore Creek Mining LLC

Picture - Moore Creek Gold with Garrett Infinium


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