A steerable electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensor system for measuring the magnetic polarizability tensor of a metal target. Instead of creating a vertical magnetic field from a horizontal loop transmitter configuration used by most prior art EMI metal detectors, the transmitter geometry of the sensor system's antenna is designed especially for creating multiple horizontal and vertical magnetic fields and for steering the same in all directions. The horizontal magnetic field (HMF) antenna has the potential advantage of a relatively uniform magnetic field over a large volume. A second potential advantage of the HMF antenna is that compared to a conventional loop antenna, the magnetic field intensity falls off slowly with distance from the plane of the antenna. Combining two HMF sensor systems creates a steerable two-dimensional magnetic field sensor. Combining the steerable HMF sensor with a vertical magnetic field antenna forms a three-dimensional steerable magnetic field sensor system.