How Do I Tell if Ground has High/Low Mineralisation?

[detectorman5050]

I've noticed that some of the target separation modes on the CTX are designed to work in ground with specific levels of mineralisation e.g. high/low.

The problem I have at present is I don't actually know how to tell if the ground/sand is highly mineralised or not.

How do I work out the above with the CTX?

Thanks.

[Fusion]

I've no idea about the CTX, but your Racer 2 has a simple 5-segment bar-graph of ground strength. Read the manual for details of how to use it, it probably needs some 'pumping' action like the Tek T2 does to get decent results.

I should add: the R2 tells you the strength of the 'iron' component of the ground signal, which is usually the important one. It doesn't tell you the reactive part of the ground response which is caused by the mineralisation. And 'Ground Balance' figures don't tell you either, they give you some guide to the ratios of 'iron' to 'mineralisation'. It's all rather complex ... manufacturers put these readouts/indicators on their machines, but it's far from obvious how to interpret them, and how they affect performance.

[detectorman5050]

I've no idea about the CTX, but your Racer 2 has a simple 5-segment bar-graph of ground strength. Read the manual for details of how to use it, it probably needs some 'pumping' action like the Tek T2 does to get decent results.

I should add: the R2 tells you the strength of the 'iron' component of the ground signal, which is usually the important one. It doesn't tell you the reactive part of the ground response which is caused by the mineralisation. And 'Ground Balance' figures don't tell you either, they give you some guide to the ratios of 'iron' to 'mineralisation'. It's all rather complex ... manufacturers put these readouts/indicators on their machines, but it's far from obvious how to interpret them, and how they affect performance.

Thanks Fusion. Interesting, but I'm not really using the Racer at the moment. Trying to learn the CTX. At present I've no idea even what the Ground Balance number is on the CTX. You hit a button, get an auto Ground Balance, and I don't see any reading.

[detectorman5050]

I've found the answer on an other forum. You need to have the option 'suggested sensitivity panel' activated for this to work:

HOW to BE AWARE OF THE PRESENCE AND 'LEVEL' OF SUCH MINERALISATION...?


As implied by other replies, the best indicator is the AUTO LEVEL reading...i.e. the right-hand-side one, shown in the sensitivity panel,

and adjacent to the manual sensitivity setting chosen by you the operator.

'Average or NORMAL ground mineralisation levels produce an AUTO reading of about 16.

As Fe mineralisation INCREASES, so the AUTO reading DECREASES..falling to levels of 12 or less as the mineralisation severity increases.

[Gary_Graham]

The beach is dead easy to determine, just rub a strongish magnet in the sand and see how much sticks.

You'll be surprised

But with the 3030 use manual sensitivity and match the right hand numbers, keep an eye on them cos they change quite quickly as conditions change.

Another point is if conditions change more than say ten digits, ie you start at 16 and after a while you're at 6, then do a noise cancel.

I have two settings which are identical apart from the target separation setting. One uses ground/coin and the other uses ferrous/coin.

When I'm on the beach OR on land where the right hand numbers are getting low using ground/coin, I can switch to ferrous/coin to check if a target is digable as this gives better separation in highly mineralised conditions.
Basically High mineralisation for us means high iron content.