Meetings
Borah High School (rear entrance) 6001 Cassia St., Boise, Idaho.
2nd Tuesday of every month (except December) at 7pm.
Our Club has access to approximately 15 claims in Southwestern Idaho ranging from Atlanta to Fairfield, the Boise Basin and Silver City/Creek areas. Anyone with a membership in good standing is allow to utilize these claims and keep any gold they find. Claims are as follows: MISS LUCY, GRIMES CREEK MOU, HANNAH1, DREAM, FLAP JACK MAC, PAYMASTER GOLDEN RULE, CHINA WINE CUP, SILVER CITY/CREEK.
 
March 2007
Web address: www.idahogoldprospectors.org
 
 
NEWSLETTER- JACK WOMACK jackwomack2000@yahoo.com
 
SINGLE - $20.00
COUPLES - $25.00
FAMILIES - $30.00 MEMBERSHIP
 
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
 
CHUCK KNAPP, PRESIDENT- Fellow Prospectors
This is my final newsletter as President. I hope you have been pleased with the direction we have taken with the club. I have enjoyed being your President these last two years. I have been a member of the club for ten years, and will continue as a member. We have added more new claims and membership has grown. We have a healthy club bank account. I hope you will support our new officers that will be elected in April. Remember this is our club and we have a say as members in what direction it goes next.
I want to thank my fellow officers. They have all performed very well.
In addition to elections this month, we have the semiannual litter pickup. The club buys breakfast for those who participate. After breakfast, all members are invited to my claim for an outing. We always find gold and have a good time. We can have a potluck dinner afterwards. Let us know at the meeting.
 

VICE-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Hi everyone. Please remember, we will hold our elections at the April meeting, and then in May we hold our annual auction. Any kind of mining or outdoor equipment is welcome, along with any white elephants or other items you'd like to get rid of. Baked goods are also gladly accepted! This is the major fundraiser for our club for the year, so please be looking around for items to bring for the auction in May. Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you soon out in the field, looking for gold!
 
If you haven’t yet paid your membership dues for 2007, you don’t qualify to vote for officers in the April election.
TAMI PALIN, VICE-PRESIDENT
 
SECRETARY REPORT-Tiffany Leib, Secretary - No report available
 
TREASURER REPORT-Jesse Leib, Treasurer- No report available .
 
N0TE: All dues that are currently owed, must be paid by the April 9th meeting or your copy of the newsletter will not be delivered to you in May.
 
Small trivia: Success has only one excuse, failure has many. A man was telling of his dislike of blue grass style music. He stated, “ The best sound he heard coming from a banjo was the sound it made when an accordion landed on it in a dumpster.
 
                                                     
                                                                         Elections for April
President
 
Rob Forbes

Tami Palin

 
Vice-President
 
Bob Oakes
 
Treasurer
 
Jesse Leib
 
Secretary
 
Irene Grant
 
The above are the persons that are running for office at this time. Circle your choice (we don’t want any hanging chads) and submit at the next meeting or mail your vote to the: IGPA
PO Box 190124
Boise, Idaho 83719-0124
Note: Further nominations maybe submitted at the meeting April 9th and maybe voted on at that time.
Good luck to all the candidates.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mega Black Sand Magnet
Joanne, Greg, and Azu Dueck, Canada
Years ago I purchased one of those little spring loaded push button magnets to remove the black sand when the material gets worked down. Works pretty good in a gold pan each time you pan down, but is very slow and tiring with concentrates from a sluice. My friend Alf came up with a more efficient and cost effective idea.
a) Find an old speaker (friend/yard sale/or the dump). Completely remove the magnet (you want a magnet approx. 3 inches in diameter) from all the speaker attachments and materials.
b) Completely clean out a PLASTIC peanut butter/jam/mayonnaise jar with a mouth wide enough for the magnet to fit through. Remove all labels/glue etc. from the outside. Place magnet inside and seal with the lid. The preferable jar will have a fairly flat bottom so that the magnet will be as close as possible to the black sand.
c) Size your concentrates with a small screen (window screen will work) and spread the undersize material (about 1/8 inch deep) in a plastic gold pan, large Tupperware or aluminum containers with a large flat bottom (glass can break and some metals will magnetize). With the magnet at the bottom of the jar, run the Mega Magnet over the sands. Don't worry about being gentle, push those sands around. Your Mega Mag will pick up the magnetic sands. To drop the sands simply give the jar a quick shake so that the magnet jumps to the top of the jar breaking the magnetic connection and the sands drop off.
You will find you can speed up your processing greatly with this unit and pick up more of the magnetic sands. Once the magnetics are removed it is much easier and more efficient to clean out your new cons for your rewards.
Some other pointers:
1) It will work BEST when the material has been dried out. It will work either way, however more small gold particles will be trapped between the black sand granules when used wet. With either method, "dropping" the material a couple of times will help to liberate the trapped gold particles.
2) After you pick up some sand, drop it in the same pan (off to the side) a couple of times and pick it up again. Each time you pick it up, go a little more gently and swirl the material a little. It even seems to help if you swirl the Mega Mag just above the black sand and let the sand come to the magnet. When the sand gets picked up initially, there may be small gold grains caught in the 'chains' of magnetic sand. Each time you drop it/pick it up again, there is less chance of the gold getting 'robbed' from your pan.
3) SAVE ALL MAGNETIC SANDS YOU REMOVE. Along with fine grains of gold that may yet be caught up with the sand: some platinum group metals are magnetic! There may be other rare earth minerals you won't know of unless the material is assayed (which you might do in the future). With this in mind drop the sands you remove into a separate container. MARK THE CONTAINER AS FINISHED MATERIAL (and location/date etc. where it came from) so you don't have to rework it again and again and again... A Ziploc baggie with a note in it is good and a length of twine stapled to the bag and label allows you to fish it out if it becomes buried. If possible, allow your saved material to dry in the container before putting the lid on so that you have a weight reduction factor for handling afterwards.