New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Hello fellows,
A friend of mine, who works for the Golden Mask Detectors engineering team (www.goldenmaskdetectors.com, I also work here, but for the sales department) has told me they are starting the developing of a special gold version of the Deep Hunter Pro pulse-induction model. They want to develop a good performer that will sell in the price range under $1000US.
Now the regular version of the detector can detect a 0,75g gold nugget at 12 cm depth with a 20 cm search coil. They are sure they could optimize the electronics and the coil, so the depth will increase in the upcoming Gold version.
So he wants to know about what characteristics the detector should have to be useful for gold prospecting. I told him I don't know, but I know the right place to ask on :-) So I decided to ask here.
Here are the questions, I would really appreciate if you can answer them.
1. What detection depth is considered good for a 0,75g gold nugget?
2. Is the iron discrimination important? It's very hard to make the discrimination as good as with the VLF detectors.
3. Should the detector have manual ground balance or auto ground balance. Or both?
Thank you!

Edited by user Monday, 16 May 2016 10:26:28 PM(UTC)  | Reason: typo