What is Hot Rock?

[Kidbeey]

Have experienced hot rocks but was wondering what minerals are in them that set the detector off. Is it iron stone?
Where I grew up not that far from Cracow Qld I heard stories of old gold prospectors in the hills nearby. However, when I was a kid in this area a magnet would pick up the stones. Can a Minelab GPX 5000 be set not to react to them?

 

[Nugget]

Probably the easiest way to explain what a hot rock is.

A hot rock can loosely be defined as: any rock or stone not containing a valuable mineral (gold, silver, or copper) which generates an audible signal response on a metal detector.

These minerals are predominately the iron oxides: magnetite, hematite, limonite, maghemite and lepidocrocite.

Source http://www.minelab.com/treasure-talk/hot-rocks-part-1

Nugget.

 

[froghoppers]

From our experience no it can't.

 

[HeadsUp]

i am still learning to set my GPX 5000 so it will discriminate / reject the signals from ironstone

however...

i think its a mistake to discard every signal you get that looks like "just a hot rock" because it could be a happy little smiley nugget hiding in there

I bring a dolly pot with me and pan the powdered rocky-thing when i am done gently "modifying its form"

dont forget that gold is not the only valuable metal

silver , platinum and others occur around the country so if in doubt take some home and smelt it / do a specific gravity test to identify it.