The GPZ 7000 – A Year in Review

It’s been a while now since I wrote about my first experiences with Minelab’s GPZ 7000 during its testing phase (Testing the GPZ 7000 in Nevada and California). I’ve now had more than a year to use the GPZ, and I wanted to give a bit of an update, as I had one of my most successful prospecting seasons in years using the 7000, and to a lesser extent Minelab’s SDC 2300. I found loads of little pieces and also an impressive number of larger bigger nuggets at depth.

For those who still are still thinking about getting one, the new ZVT technology of the GPZ 7000 really is a notable improvement in the detection depth of commercially available metal detectors. In spite of the fact that I’ve had my hands on it regularly, it still amazes me with the depth of detection it achieves on all sizes of targets from small to large and I find myself shaking my head and muttering to myself over the surprising depth of the targets I am digging. Sometimes the deeper targets are gold and sometimes trash, but where I work the deeper targets have better odds of being gold, and the GPZ really has the depth penetration and sensitivity to pick up nuggets that other detectors miss.

The GPZ also saves time and makes me more productive by covering a large area and getting both small and large nuggets at the same time. If I find a patch of nuggets, I no longer need to go over it with multiple coils to get all the gold; the GPZ gets it all in the first pass, from the tiny shallow bits to the biggest prize nuggets down deep. This makes my prospecting more efficient and gives me more time to explore further and find more patches. 

During my year of prospecting with the GPZ, I also learned to better recognize the sounds the detector makes. On shallow targets, the GPZ makes a complex double target sound as the target passes under the two coil overlaps of the GPZ’s Super-D coil. However, as the target gets deeper the double signal sounds move closer together until they merge to a single tone that centers under the middle of the coil.

I have learned to get very excited when I hear one of these mellow single tones under my GPZ, as it signals a deeper target. While there is no guarantee that a deep target is always gold, deeper targets have a higher chance of being gold. Many of the larger deeper nuggets I’ve dug with the GPZ have sounded off in just this way. In fact this last summer I was explaining how this change in response to deeper targets worked to my father who happened to be with me on a prospecting trip. As I was talking about it, sure enough, I found one and showed him how this single tone was exactly what I was talking about. We dug the target up and it was a deep quarter ounce nugget.

There is also some additional very exciting news on the horizon for those who have yet to get their hands on one. Minelab has made a permanent price reduction here in the US from $9,999 to $7,999, and that should help get this amazing detector into the hands of prospectors who have so far hesitated on purchasing a GPZ 7000 of their own.

Those already working with this fine detector have something else to look forward to as well. Minelab Americas President Gary Schafer recently announced that a larger accessory coil for the GPZ is under active development. Lots of prospectors who have had success with the existing GPZ 14 coil – like me - are looking forward to trying out the new coil when it becomes available. I have a few places in mind where I am sure some deep gold is hiding. So the future seems very bright for the GPZ 7000 and its ZVT technology, and like last year there will be some great new gold coming to light here soon – I’m looking forward to it!