Does anyone know any good areas for metal detecting ?
A good place would be the Keweenaw Peninsula and Lake Superior beaches in northern Michigan. It’s a ways from Detroit, but the area has much native copper. You can probably find a few nuggets of it by using a metal detector along the beaches and in the dumps (waste rock piles) of the old copper mines there. Some silver has been found here as well; you may just get lucky. Forgot to mention: any copper you find will have a green patina; it will not be shiny or “copper colored.” If you desire, you should be able to clean the pieces with hydrochloric acid or abrasives (try steel wool).