When Minelab dealers and various media outlets from around the world attended the recent Minelab Worldwide Dealer Conference in Las Vegas, Nev., we were introduced to what Minelab described as a new “entry level” gold prospecting detector; the Gold Monster 1000. The detector created quite a bit of discussion along with a certain amount of skepticism among many of us that have been detecting for decades. Coming from Minelab, a company that has been known for innovation since the 1980s, the Gold Monster 1000 was not what we expected.