Prospector

Rabbit Island Gold

September 30, 2019 by Prospector

A request came in from a lady in distress and her skeptical husband. The next day another hunt for a lost ring was arranged. Their story as it unfolds is continued below.

“Recently my 93-year-old mother visited us from Australia and gave me her wedding and engagement rings as a gift. I put the engagement ring away but wore the wedding ring which seemed to fit quite well.

A couple of Sundays ago, and because the weather was so beautiful, we went for a walk down the beach at Rabbit Island. We sat in the sand up past the high tide mark for a while before deciding to continue our walk. I stood up and dusted the sand off, and the ring flew off my finger and landed somewhere in the sand. We scrabbled around for ages before realising it was a lost cause and that it was gone for good.

Later on that evening I suddenly wondered if there was a metal detector in the Nelson region. Dean (from Mineforgold.co.nz) texted me and we arranged to meet the following day. I was not hopeful that it would be found but he assured me if it was where I said it was, then he would find it. I knew where to look and in less than a minute the ring was found! I am very happy and grateful. Thank you Dean….the Detectorist to the Rescue!”

Picture of the once lost wedding ring found by metal detector — The elusive lost wedding ring is found

Metal Detecting Lost Gold

July 23, 2018 by Prospector

A Modern Day Pot ‘o Gold Tale

Let’s call him “Bob.”
Bob contacted me through Mine for Gold asking for help locating a cache of gold coins he’d buried some years ago…and now was unable to remember exactly where!
Oh dear.

After some background checks to ensure it was all legitimate, I met up with Bob and his wife and they showed me a patch of pasture with several excavations. Looking at the scene, I could almost sense the growing panic with the turfs transitioning from neat squares to less organised lumps and becoming more scattered around the holes…

I switched on the detector, tuned it up, and started to work the pre-dug holes to ensure it wasn’t just a case of not going deep enough. As each was cleared I moved further along the line, eliminating a few false hits which turned out to be flakes of scrap. I reached the end of the last excavation and just past the far edge, got that “Dig Me!” solid tone.

Bob went in with the spade and quickly exposed a flash of red plastic – just under the grass! I’m sure everyone’s voices went up a notch as it was progressively unearthed.

Now, the fundamental rule of detecting is to always check the hole and to ensure no coins had been lost from the now damaged jar I stuck the pinpointer into the hole. It twittered away excitedly, so I scraped the soil with the pointer and exposed more plastic!

Turns out there were two containers of lost gold, not just one as first thought.

A successful metal detecting hire and a very happy Mine for Gold treasure hunting customer!

Wedding Ring Lost In Garden

April 17, 2018 by Prospector

Another Mine For Gold ring finder success story.

Philip lost his platinum wedding band while gardening at home in Auckland. He was standing at a raised garden bed when it was raining. He said he shook his hands to rid them of dirt. The next thing he hears is a ping noise behind him, he is 1 metre from the boundary fence.

The ring went through the netting fence into a pile of grass clippings and compost. After an hour and a half crawling around in the mud, rain and humidity it was finally located in the neighbours property. What made it extra challenging was that his property backs on to two other neighbours so I had to dig in 3 different properties!

Ian uses a ctx3030 (The GPS function comes in really handy for big search areas) and an X pointer from Deteknix to successfully find your lost rings.

Lost Ring Finders Christmas Present

December 24, 2017 by Prospector

Ring Finder Christmas Miracle – Dec 21st

I received a call from a very upset lady, the usual story of a slightly-too-large ring and the sea.

Lost Ring Found For Early Christmas Present

The previous day, she had gone for a morning swim, and returned to discover she and her ring had parted company.

Now, I knew the beach in question is very mobile and notorious for ‘swallowing’ rings so time was of the essence!
I cashed in some of my leave at work and headed away in order to catch the next low tide.
An hour and a half and a car ferry later, I arrived on site. Looking at the steep beach angle I could realistically only give her maybe a 50:50 chance of finding it.

After a quick walkthrough of the timeline leading up to the loss, I marked out the area of highest probability and started searching between the tideline and the waist-deep dropoff. Figured I’d do the hotspot first before getting the wetsuit on!

A lot of litter signals from can tabs and so forth caused several stops to listen carefully and determine if it was the ring… all were discounted for one reason or another.

Then, on the third line a clear tone and the scoop went in for a big bite out of the gravel. I checked the hole to make sure I had the target and waded ashore to empty the scoop.

On top of the pile of stones was the ring, and only 12 minutes from switching the machine on (Largely thanks to an extremely accurate start point).

Handed her the lost ring with a smile and a “Happy Christmas!”.
One extremely grateful, and very relieved couple.

Another NZ ring finder success story from the Mine For Gold metal detector team.

Finding Rings In The South

June 24, 2014 by Prospector

Not Lord of the Rings, but definitely Master of Finding Lost Rings.

A ring finding SOS went out to the Mine For Gold ring finding team in the south of NZ and the result …

Having driven for over an hour on a frosty sunny morning through the heart of the Waimea plains, I finally arrived at the home of a woman who had lost two rings while weeding around a tree on her property.

After a warm welcome and a few details about the rings I throw on the gummies and grabbed my Goldbug, knife and spade and we made our way to the tree.

I could see straight away that she had spent a lot of time searching and digging. I moved all the loose dirt into one pile and waved detector over it. Nothing there.

A couple of swings 30cm away from tree and BINGO! solid signal, about 150 mm down first ring, a silver celtic ring, couple swings later and BINGO! the white gold ring only a couple of inches from the first ring.

Picture of rings found with metal detector

Another happy lost ring customer thanks to Coren.