Finca las Minas

Tour de Oro Artesanal

Useful Information

Location:	Finca Las Minas de Oro (8.692079, -83.560675)
Open:	All year daily. [2023]
Fee:	yes. [2023]
Classification:	Gold Mine Placer Mining
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Finca las Minas.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1940s

two gold miners discover gold in the creek and settle on the site of Finca las Minas de Oro.

Geology

Description

Finca las Minas (Mine Farm) is actually a sort of farm holidays with placer mining. The creeks in the area have gold placers, which were mined since the 19th century, and the current owner offers farm stay with gold washing courses in the creeks on the farm. And actually the mining is quite successful, typically you will take a few nuggets home. Not enough to pay for the journey, of course, but enough to make the stay quite a success. Rancho Quemado is a small village on the Osa Peninsula, which is said to be least-visited community on the peninsula. Its rural, there is no beach, nothing spectacular, not even a good road.

Juan and his wife Rosa live on a farm called Finca Las Minas de Oro with their family of three children. They have created a gold mining, or better gold washing tour, in 2017. Their farm is the place where two gold miners settled in the early 1940s when they discovered gold within the neighboring creek. They were out hunting and their house burned down in their absence. That's the reason why this village is called Rancho Quemado which means “Burning Ranch”. When word spread many people came in search of a fortune. Unfortunately it is also technically illegal. The gold washing tour are a legal alternative for income. This tour is part of a general movement to replace gold washing by tourism.