Monday, July 12, 2010

Gold Safari Sluice Box Review

The Gold Safari Sluice Box
Guests are gone, new camp is shaping up, and some rearranging is finished.  As promised, I have a review of the Gold Safari sluice I bought last year late in the season.  Since it is gold propsecting season for everyone, I could not find their website active and there are none listed on e-Bay where I found this one.  They may be out finding gold like the rest of us.  LOL! 

The first thing I liked about this sluice box is the 12 inch wide box and riffle system.  This means that the box should be able to handle classified material pretty fast.  The second was the combination of three different types of riffles, each meant to help catch material on it's way through.  It also came with indoor/outdoor carpeting, which we have always liked better than miners moss.  (Too many rocks hang up in it, and you have to run matting underneath.)

The one thing I did NOT like was that it did not have rubber mat or carpeting before the riffles, and it did not come with expanded metal.  Both of these items we added.

The first set of riffles are short round bars.  I wasn't too sure about this when we got the sluice box, but I was willing to give it a try.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that they worked in tandem to provide a calm area between them that dropped heavier black sand and gold into, leaving the second riffle to clear out the lighter sand.  Very nice.  The gold showed up, of course, right away in the black mat, and the wide box spread the material out so that I could spade classified material into it as fast as I wanted to.  I watched the second riffle to be sure it was cleaning out adequately, and we went through 10 buckets as fast as we could classify it.

All in all, I like this sluice box.  Be aware that you will need to add the rubber matting or carpet at the head of the box and expanded metal if you want to.  The box sold for around $150.00, and if you can find one, I recommend it. 
And for your viewing pleasure, here is a pic of the gold we caught with the sluice.

Monday, July 05, 2010

Small Gold Ore Crusher

Crushing Rock
This week has certainly been a busy one! I DO hope you were watching gold rise and fall this past week. It was interesting to see it move higher and then dive by Friday’s close.
Picker that came out of the dirt pile at Tin Pan Prospector


I know most of you are waiting for my sluice box report. It is still on my to do list, but I found out my Mother was coming this past week for a visit and things have gotten put on a bit of a hold while we catch up. I have not seen her for over a year, so there is much to talk about and do.

The gold panning area at Tin Pan Prospector is showing some nice color. We panned out a picker on Saturday, and everyone else was happy with what they were finding.

Fairplay Burro Days is coming up July 23rd & 24th, so get that on your calendar and “Get Your Ass Up the Pass”! GPOC will also have their gold panning troughs out for the public again this year.

Colorado State Gold Panning Championships will be the weekend after in Breckenridge, July 30, 31 and August 1st. All challengers are welcome!

It is quiet, friendly, and full of activity at our new camp south of Fairplay. So far, we are very happy with the area and the amenities we have here in CORA. We even used the pool this last weekend for some relaxing fun. We have many new trails to explore, mines to visit and gold to find here in South Park. With luck and what we know about this mineral belt, we are confident we will be able to assist with opening up some of the private and patented areas here. There is excitement in the valley again over placer and lode mining, but there is much work to be done before it will be a reality. When we are all successful, prospecting for gold in Colorado will become easier on this side of the gold and silver mineral belt.

Watch for the sluice box report. I really do like this new box. It has a triple riffle system that is interesting.

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July! AND you have this Monday to rest up from your celebrations.

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
http://www.hookedongold.com/
hookedongold@gmail.com