What is a genuine Minelab?

I give up!
Cheers Chris.

There is one very importanr thing we need to remember people. What do you honestly think would happen if ML came out with a statement that "All our metasl detectors are now going to be made in Malaysia by an American owned company"

Just read some of the comments already posted above from various people......Outrage would erupt and people would start demanding prices to come down because of things like lower labour costs to produce etc etc etc.

Of course ML wont publically admit this. Their research is still SA based yes, but not the assembly line.

Remember how the country went up in arms when Bonds moved their factory to Asia.............ML is about as australian as the bald eagle nowadays

someday wrote:At the end of the page it states made in both country's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi someday, propably you have to read again the message below:

Jonathan Porter wrote:
The GPX 5000s are now made in Malaysia by Plexus as per the packaging, AFAIK on initial release they were made in Australia hence the differences in peoples detector boxes.

JP does not say that are produced in both countries, but in Malaysia.
Cheers
Goldquest

xenon wrote:There is one very importanr thing we need to remember people. What do you honestly think would happen if ML came out with a statement that "All our metasl detectors are now going to be made in Malaysia by an American owned company"

Just read some of the comments already posted above from various people......Outrage would erupt and people would start demanding prices to come down because of things like lower labour costs to produce etc etc etc.

Of course ML wont publically admit this. Their research is still SA based yes, but not the assembly line.

Remember how the country went up in arms when Bonds moved their factory to Asia.............ML is about as australian as the bald eagle nowadays

Hi xenon, We're not here to crucify anyone, but I think that all customers who have followed faithfully for many years Minelab deserve at least a bit of gratitude and know the truth straight from the source.
Cheers
Goldquest

[quote="goldquest"]

xenon wrote:There is one very importanr thing we need to remember people. What do you honestly think would happen if ML came out with a statement that "All our metasl detectors are now going to be made in Malaysia by an American owned company"

Just read some of the comments already posted above from various people......Outrage would erupt and people would start demanding prices to come down because of things like lower labour costs to produce etc etc etc.

Of course ML wont publically admit this. Their research is still SA based yes, but not the assembly line.

Remember how the country went up in arms when Bonds moved their factory to Asia.............ML is about as australian as the bald eagle nowadays

Hi xenon, We're not here to crucify anyone, but I think that all customers who have followed faithfully for many years Minelab deserve at least a bit of gratitude and know the truth straight from the source.


Hi Goldquest,

I realise people are not out to crucify ML. Believe me mate, I agree with you fully that they should come out and give their supporters the truth on this subject, but dont hold your breath.
I was just making the point that as a company, especially one that has alot of following from it's Oz customers, ML would really need to be careful as they would have no idea whether there would be a backlash here in Oz.
As many posters have already commented regarding the price difference between here and the US (this subject has been gone over many times here and on other forums). Alot of comments regarding the price differences was along the lines of "they are keeping australians in jobs and how it has to be higher here cos we expect high wages etc......Now, seeing as the detectors are no longr made here in oz, surely people will start to question the reasons why we pay more.
I do think ML should say something but they are famous for staying very tight lipped about everything.
Cheers

Minelab are now a publicly listed company with an expectant share holder base, which means the information about the manufacturing process being moved off shore was made public right off the bat. The reason it was done I would say was two fold, one being obvious, cost of manufacture, but the less obvious reason is something all Minelab detector owners are happily taking advantage of and I think in the scheme of things is the real reason why Plexus are now doing the work, reliability and consistency. You just do not read of many problems with the GPX 5000 on any of the forums world wide, Plexus have a state of the art manufacturing facility which can not only produce consistent results each and every time but can also do it in a mass production scenario, which is what Minelab have had to do to keep up with growing demand for their product world wide.

I'm not going to theorize too heavily as to the whys and wherefores of Minelab policy and I definitely do not speak for them on such matters, the link I provided above took me two seconds to source via Google so its not as if the information is kept a secret. At the end of the day we as users need to keep in mind that Minelab are still small fry in the electronics industry when it comes to the amounts of units sold, therefore they have to charge accordingly for the totally unique technology that goes into each and every detector because the development costs are huge, but when it comes to performance they have no peer, that is something that as an Australian I am very proud of.

Hope this helps,

Jonathan Porter

Gday

While I understand the reason behind why minelab are having their detectors made overseas, primarily being a demand and supply situation, it reminds me of the way many well known electronic products have gone in the past, I remember products that used to be seen as top notch and good quality when I was young are now seen as mass produced disposable rubbish and best avoided.

Apart from that I would argue about the security of their patents and designs, once products leave our shores and are in the hands of others they are soon copied and replicated, we have already seen an increase in the numbers of copied machines but from what I have heard is they dont work as they should, but I would imagine that the next generation of fakes will be even harder to spot and work long enough to be seen as geniune by the purchaser.

These machines will be made for a fraction of the price of an Australian made product, with components of dubious quality and origin, and you will still pay an inflated price for them, but when it fails only then will you find out that you dont have the genuine article, minelab wont want to repair it and your stuck with it.

Anyway I guess time will tell.

cheers

stayyerAU

Jonathan Porter wrote: but when it comes to performance they have no peer, that is something that as an Australian I am very proud of.

Hope this helps,

Jonathan Porter

i`ve been buying minelabs since the ground tracker 1600. i agree Jonathan.
my 5 is made in Malaysia. great machine.
cheers dave

When a company is struggling to survive (Strapped for cash) but have a product that a few people want then they list on the Stock Exchange and get an instant input of Shareholder funds which keeps the companys head above water.Trouble is the shareholders want a return for their money so the cost of product goes up and the shareholder becomes more important than the customer. Then the company gets greedy and sees a cheap labour market elswhere and moves manufacturing Off Shore , the company will then maintain or increase their product price as it was before they moved to cheaper manufacturing costs. The result is more Australians being out of work, less people wanting to become electronics technitions or other tradesman/women leading to further Dumbing Down of newer generation. shareholder funded companys are what fuel Inflation.

Wow this post has open,d up a can of worm,s!!
At least i no now that this detector i have purchased it a genuine minelab as it,s regesterd at ML it was initialy purchased from the prospectors patch.
i wonder who puts them together...maybe some 10 year old kid,s with a soldering iron !!!
Phill...

Re: fake minelab
UNCLE BOB Yesterday at 11:30 am

.Hi Guys,
My 5000 box too says that it was made in Australia.
I have read the 5000 manual and it says that it was printed in 2009, so does that mean the gpx5000 was made in 2008-09, more than 18 months before it's release the manual also has the Ireland branch on the manual which has closed down. Sounds like the GPX 4500, 4800 AND THE 5000'S WERE INVENTED IN THE SAME YEAR OR CLOSE TO THAT TIME............

.

Hi I just purchased a GPX 4500 new from Coiltech in Maryborough for $4800 some that had been bought back from another store and sold with a 12 month coiltech warrenty not minelab warrenty, it says on this box Designed by Minelab Electronics Australia, Assembled by Minelab Electronics Australia under contract by subsidary of Plexuis Corp, USA Made in Malaiaysia

fencejumper wrote:

UNCLE BOB wrote: Re: fake minelab
UNCLE BOB Yesterday at 11:30 am

.Hi Guys,
My 5000 box too says that it was made in Australia.
I have read the 5000 manual and it says that it was printed in 2009, so does that mean the gpx5000 was made in 2008-09, more than 18 months before it's release the manual also has the Ireland branch on the manual which has closed down. Sounds like the GPX 4500, 4800 AND THE 5000'S WERE INVENTED IN THE SAME YEAR OR CLOSE TO THAT TIME............

the release of the 5000 was delayed because the 4500 was selling so well mainly due to the sudan rush

I bought my GPX-4500 in October 2009, now you are telling me that there were already two other models with higher performance then mine ready to be put on the market and the only reason for the delay is because the sales of 4500 were very high? Well sorry but doesn't seem very professional to me.
If I were the owner of a GPX-5000, I would not be very tranquil, because there may be a half dozen new metal detector ready to be put on the market, waiting for sales to come down.
Cheers
Goldquest

Come on you blokes! ML have always played that game. They have a buisness to run and if they want to keep it going for a long time, well that will not happen if they release the best all singing and dancing only find gold detector straight away... well, then what?? Just look at the time line from the development of the SD2000 to the present GPX 5000, Definately had more than one in development at any one time. So what's wrong with that!? Good buisness sense I think. The market is very limited where gold detecting is concerned and that will keep the cost and development of the best gold detectors pretty high.
The market for Treasure, coin, relic and scuba detectors is much larger than than for gold detectors so the costs can be kept down a little. You only have to look at the Nokta top line GPR unit, it is a lot more sophisticated than any PI on the market and the price of the standard setup is not much different to a GPX5000. Jus tryin ta stir tha pot a bit

.

fencejumper wrote:goldquest sorry to hear you bought one so late in the peice but
the moment a model is released, they are working on the next model as do car makers and phone makers
theres usauly 18 months between minelab models but the 4500 was stretched out a bit as they were still in high demand..
makes good business sence to me, why bring out a new model when the current ones are flying out the door?
most people knew the next model was due out and most 5000 owners know the next one is being worked on and should be out 18 months after the 5000
was released.
18 months is plenty of time for the detector to pay for itself and then some....so it's all good
cheers

Thank you fencejumper, I like the way you explain things, I hope we can meet one day so we can have a nice conversation in person.
Cheers
Goldquest

.

had a look at the box that my GPX 5000, purchased from America ,the box says designed in Australia and made in Australia .

Their unique features as well as new technological advances introduced, guarantee the stable and silent operation of the GPX5000 detectors in the most adverse conditions, while maintaining at the same time an excellent depth and sensitivity to gold nuggets.
Easy to use both for beginners and for professionals – you can turn on the detector and start searching immediately in any of its preset modes and automatic functions.
Any detecto amateur detection knows that the GPX found gold at greater depth, in all types of terrain! Don’t be fooled by imitators or lose time with second use metal detectors.



GPX5000 detectors

Codan Ltd owns Minelab. Codan are a radio communications company trading world wide. Metal Detecting products accounted for sales exceeding $91 million in the half year 7/12 to 12/12. This represented 67% of their revenue. The company trades well and is very profitable which indicates to me they make a lot of profit out of the metal detecting division and expect that to continue through 2013.
This info is available to all who wants to do a bit of research. Penang in Malaysia has a large manufacturing estate out near it's airport mainly devoted to electronics. Obviously Codan subcontracts the manufacture to Plexus. Nothing wrong with all this although my personal opinion is it would be far cheaper to do it in China and just as controlled and could be managed as well. Why they choose Malaysia is got me beat maybe some incentives from the government there although I doubt they could beat China. Whether you all think this is good or bad the realty is in Australia we have priced ourselves out of the market. Our Governments have been poor managers and our wages and salaries are juts too high. In particular what public companies pay their management.
This is my opinion only but as we have noted the pros in this forum swear by the Minelab detectors so I am not going to disagrees with them but I cannot see how one can justify the price Minelab charges. With the Australian dollar so high and I would bet London to a Brick they are sourcing many of their internal components from China if not all and just assembling in Malaysia. So guys put the where's and what for's to bed it is all about profit as always for listed companies. At their prices they will ultimately be outdone by a Chinese company hence I do not understand why they don't be more competitive. Remember about 40% of all Chinese exports are manufactured by either wholly owned foreign companies in China or joint ventures.

Much of this is my opinion but the ownership is factual.

Please note correction to my previous should be 67%.

More mistakes. I can spell just no good at typing. Should be 'wholly owned foreign companies'.

Thanks kellygang for your viewpoint. Just for the record, can you also please tell us where you are located? With your wording:

the realty is in Australia we have priced ourselves out of the market. Our Governments have been poor managers and our wages and salaries are juts too high. In particular what public companies pay their management

...you do portray to be here in Australia, is this correct?

Happy to do so Costa. I live in Bundaberg Queensland but right now I am in China and will return next month. I am retired, 67 years old, and considering taking up prospecting when I return so have an interest in buying a metal detector but I have little knowledge of them although years ago worked in an underground gold mine in Nth Queensland so have some knowledge of Gold mining i.e. hard rock or alluvial.

I have had extensive experience in doing business in China and Australia and if I may add many in Australia and other western countries do not understand much about China they just see the place as a knock off country producing cheap rubbish without realising after WW11 Japan was the same followed by Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Each place has progressed to the point where some of them have become leaders in their fields. Most of them have now transferred their manufacture to China. I believe China will be the same but it is much bigger here simply because everything in China is much bigger because of the population of 1.3 billion. Hence corruption is bigger, more companies producing copies, more of everything. The changes in China over the last 20-30 years have been enormous and one has to admire the fact they have lifted 500 million people out of poverty over this period.

My apologies I could go on and on but let me say that Australia is where I was born and bred and will probably die there but I am disappointed in the way my country has been managed and that relates to both political parties. I will stop there and revert back to what this forum is about. I think our Australian design detectors should be more competitive in price bearing in mind many of the Chinese intellectuals studied and were trained in USA, Australia, Britain etc so they will get it right soon, they just need to get their marketing right.

I'm hearing you!, it's sad..... but too true,too much time and effort is wasted in one party attacking another on petty matters while the real work is left undone, wages too high?. it's hard to see how we could ever compete with a workforce like


China.Wayne.

Thanks for your reply kellygang, as I realised that you where in Chine, but portraying that you where possibly in Australia, so not wanting our members to be victims of a possible scam, I had to ask the question and I do thank you for your honesty and your explanation.

As far as getting the detectors made in China, people may be a bit weary of this, as there are already many counterfeit GPX5000 and GPX4500 that have hit the market, with the majority having origins in China. It would take some doing to undo the damage these counterfeiters have done, in terms of the Chinese manufacturing reputation. Still it is not impossible but firstly I think people need to see the Chinese government stepping in and prosecuting these counterfeiters and actively doing something about this crime.

My viewpoint, and it's only that, is that it doesn't matter where the detectors are made, there will not be a price drop as long as there is no competition for the Minelab product. Yes there are other companies that make metal detectors, but only less than a handful that make PI metal detectors, and even fewer that could pose to be any real competition to the Minelab product. In fact, for the Australian goldfields, they are the best on the market and everyone, whether they admit it or not, would know that this is not too far from the truth. Whilst there is not serious competition for the GPX range of detectors, Minelab can charge whatever figure they want because they know that if people want the best, they will just pay for it.

I am only plucking figure out of my head here, but when Minelabs were being made in Australia, they may have cost $1000 to produce and Minelab were selling them for about $6000. Then they moved offshore and the detectors probably cost them $500 to produce, and the price went up with the next model. Less cost to produce, higher selling price, much more profit. So kellygang, even if they go to China for their manufacturing process and it only costs them $250 to produce, the price will not go down if there is no competition, and until another company produces something that comes close, then we must just grin and bare it.

As far as politics and the 2 main parties are concerned....let's just not go there.