While on vacation in a remote western Nevada valley I encountered a blue cable stretched across the back road I was driving on. It looked like it was connected to a large orange "tackle" box sitting on the ground near the shoulder of the road. Looking out over the valley there were several people spaced maybe 200' apart in a line with the blue cable. And probably, more orange tackle boxes that I couldn't see because of the brush.
I stopped and asked one of them what the cable across the road was for and in the brief conversation learned that they were all from Montana and they were doing exploration work for a possible gold mine. He said that when they "fire it off" 20,000 volts passes through the blue cable.
Not wanting to take up much of his time and the obvious fact they seemed a bit nervous encountering me is such a remote location I let it go at that.
Now I can't help but wonder how such a system would detect minerals... How does it work? What is it called? Anybody know?
Plumas