Coal and Metal Detecting

[Sal66]

Hey everyone ! I've been wanting to ask this question for awhile . Why does Coal give off a signal when it has no Metallic properties at all . I tried looking it up and came up with nothing on the subject. Has anyone else had this problem ?? :confused:

[OxShoeDrew]

Sal, I sometimes dig a very light black thing that I thought was spent coal. I don't really know for sure though.

[del]

Sal , coal that was once burned as fuel is usually loaded with high concentrations of iron and its the reason it falses with machines and known as a hotrock .

[freemindstuck]

It is only the burnt coal ash that gives off the false signals. Del is right it is from high levels of Iron. I call it coal slag. I've seen the mineralization around train stations, where they would just dump the coal ash, as high as 35 to 40%. It makes for extremely difficult ground to detect in.

[Sal66]

|:cheering: Thanks guys ! That was my next question Dan, What is a Hot Rock. The thing is the coal signal is an iron signal and I thought Hot Rocks gave off a high signal . The spot I got the coal signals was behind an old house . They probably had a Coal Furnace and that's where they dumped the spent Coal. Your right, it's a big pain in the butt when detecting .

[del]

Sal a hotrock is any stone or rock that has enough metal ore in it that it interferes with a machine's discriminator and gets it to false or masks good targets . there are parts of Connecticut that is awful for natural hotrocks and bad soil mineralization , I didn't know how bad until i started using a pulse machine.

Dan