History of gold mining in New Zealand
hardluck:
Hello All
At the bottom on the world lies a place half forgotten who had gold rushes in the past that few outside New Zealand have heard of.
The Central Otago Gold Rush (often simply called the Otago gold rush) was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. Constituting the country's biggest gold strike, the discovery of gold in Otago led to a rapid influx of foreign miners - many of them veterans of other hunts for the precious metal in California and Victoria, Australia.
The rush started at Gabriel's Gully but spread throughout much of Central Otago, leading to the rapid expansion and commercialization of the new colonial settlement of Dunedin, which quickly grew to be New Zealand's largest city. However, only a few years later, most of the smaller new settlements were deserted again, and gold extraction became a more commercialized, long-term activity.
The West Coast Gold Rush on the West Coast of New Zealand from 1864 to 1867 populated the area, which up till then had been visited by few Europeans. Gold was found near the Taramakau River in 1864 by two Māori, Ihaia Tainui and Haimona Taukau. In 1865-66 gold was discovered at Okarito, Bruce Bay, around Charleston and along the Grey River.
Miners were attracted from the Central Otago Gold Rush, and from Victoria, Australia where the Victorian Gold Rush had nearly finished and by the end of 1864 there were an estimated 1800 prospectors on the West Coast, with many in the Hokitika area. Hokitika was in 1866 the most populous settlement in New Zealand with a population of more than 25,000, and boasted more than 100 pubs.
In 1867 the rush began to decline, though gold mining continued on the Coast for some years. In the 1880s, quartz miners at Bullendale and Reefton were the first users of electricity in New Zealand.
The main towns on the West Coast had been established, as well as many gold rush towns like Okarito (at one time the largest town on the Coast) and Charlestown, which both almost vanished when the miners moved on. The Coast was the second-richest gold-bearing area of New Zealand after Otago.
There were other areas that had gold mining activities One such mine in the Photograph shows a golden pyramid of gold bars made up of two years of production from 1895 to 1896.
You can see the level of Gold production in New Zealand, 1850s?2000s in the table below.
This graph shows the production from different types of gold mining in New Zealand from the 1850s to the 2000s. In the 1850s to 1900, alluvial gold dominated. Two dredging booms (also alluvial gold) occurred, one about 1900 the other in the 1930s. Hard-rock mining became increasingly important from the 1890s, when the cyanide method for chemically recovering gold from crushed quartz was developed. The floating and subsequent rise of the international gold price in the 1970s was largely responsible for the boom in gold mining in the 1980s and 1990s.
Today there are 2 main large scale mines and few medium mining operation and hundreds of small operations. You can obtain a 12 month mining permit and there are many areas on the west coast where you can search for gold. Strange enough there does not seem to be a large metal detecting scene in New Zealand?
So who knows perhaps it might be the ideal place to swing a detector?
HardLuck ;)
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Dayhiker:
Thanks for the history and pics. That's a lot of tents in that valley. It sure would be a neat place to visit and hunt.
Of course if I were going to come all that way I would have to visit Australia too. :)
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hardluck:
Hello Dayhiker
Here is some NZ newspaper reports of gold finds in NZ.
Gotta love that picture of the gold bars stacked in a pyramid. 29 million dollars worth. ;D
Hardluck. :D
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goldnboy:
the big pyramid stack is about 1 1/2 hr drive from where i live. one bonanza was so rich with gold, when the crushers processed the ore, they became stuck because the gold was so rich!
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Idaho Jones:
Wow that sounds like a fun place to poke around in.
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goldnboy:
hello Idaho Jones
you got it, its a graet place. I got my first trout fly fishing in a river down that way ( good fishing ) trout up to 20 lb ! browns and rainbows. ;) if you like fishing.
lots of gold and silver, gem stones also. Moast of the gold is in the rocks, not much alluvial fields, Its near the top on the list of things to do. plenty of places to poke around, ive got a few places to check out
and start swinging the detector about...
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Idaho Jones:
Love to fly fish, once upon a time there were fish like that here. Makes me want to pack my bags and head south for a while :)
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goldnboy:
Fly fishing is very good here in NewZealand, Some trout over 30 Lb !! I went to a club meeting earlier this week, it was the Agm and the best brown was 5. something kg So about 11-12 lb
average trout in some areas is from 4-6 lb. If you did come down under Let me know in advance for a bit of a treasure hunt and a fly fish. We also have salt water fly, with good options there.
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hardluck:
Hello Goldnboy
Still interested in Diamonds?
I have a story for you, an alleged discovery of diamonds in the south Island? The official stance as it is to this day that there are no diamonds in New Zealand.
However That is not what they first thought in 1883.
interested?
Hardluck 8)
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Wolfman:
Wow, Very Interesting Thank You, The Wolfman
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