New Zealand Goldmining and Goldfields

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New Zealand Gold part 2

Travels in the Coromandel Goldfields

Introduction and Goldmining Techniques | Travels in the Coromandel Goldfields | Travels in the Otago Goldfields | Travels in the West Coast Goldfields | Travels in Minor Goldfields

These pages brings together our information on New Zealand Gold, Goldmining Techniques and Goldfields gathered whilst touring in the Coromandel over a number of years.

Travels through the Coromandel Goldfields in North Island

The Broken Hills Goldfields

The Broken Hills DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite is one of our favourites and I have lost count of the number of times we have been there. It is in the South East of the Coromandel on a site beside the banks of the Tiarua river with stunning scenery amongst spectacular towering hillsides.

It is right in the middle of the old Broken Hills and Golden Hill Goldfields and has and a considerable number of goldfield walks, taking from minutes on well formed paths to hours involving energetic climbs and passages through old tunnels.

There are still remains from most of the activities in goldming, stamper batteries, power houses, cynadide vats, adits (tunnels), water races, tramways and aerial ropeways to name a few making it an excellent starting place for learning about goldmining in the Coromandel. It, as much as anywhere, initiated our interest in the goldmining heritage in New Zealand but because we have been so often I will restrict the write up to the last two visits.

Gold was found relatively late at Broken Hills in 1893 and major development did not start until 1907 and processing in 1910 with most of the extraction depending on use of Cyanide. You can see the remains of the 4m diameter vats of cyanide in the Broken Hills sites as well as the foundations of the Stamper Batteries and power houses. The goldfields round Broken Hills were largely exhausted by 1913 by which time only 55,000 oz of bullion had been recovered. Because the field was fairly recent it is better document than many and the DOC information (and our books) have some good photographs of the various batteries, aerial ropeways etc taken when they were in use.

Broken Hills in 2001 We camped at Broken Hills, a DOC camp site in the a historic goldfields area we have been to several times before. The camp site has stunning scenery and is sited, in the middle of the old Broken Hills and Golden Hill Goldfields, on the banks of the Tiarua river. It was surprisingly empty so early in the season and we had a choice of pitches and a nice area almost to ourselves.

We did a number of the shorter Goldfield walks the day we arrived which gave us a chance to look at the sites of the three main Stamper Batteries, two of them have quite a lot of remains and one can piece together a lot of the history. We also walked up to look at one of the old water races complete with a series of short tunnels used to supply water to the Pelton wheels (turbines) used to power the Government Stamper Battery just below. Unfortunately nothing remains of that battery.

The second morning we were woken at 0530 by the most incredible dawn chorus, starting with Tuis and Bellbirds and building up till it was almost deafening. The forecast was not good so we set off early on our major walk taking us up to where the mines were sited. We saw many of the old adits (mine tunnels) some still open for exploration. You can also see the site of the aerial ropeway which transported the ore right across the valley to the Golden Hills battery we looked at the previous day. The highlight of the three hour walk was going through the Collins Drive - a 500m tunnel from one side of the hill to the other. Fortunately we had a couple of torches with us. By the time we got down the mist was coming down and we took the tend down still a bit damp. At least we had not suffered the flash floods promised for the area overnight!

Broken Hills in 2002 Our next visit was in 2002 and once more the camp site was largely deserted - even at a weekend only three other pitches were occupied plus a large group from the International Rotary Caravan Federation on their annual bushcamp which had taken one of the flats by the river. We chose a well sheltered corner which caught all the afternoon and evening sun. The hills towering over the site cut off the sunin the morning and it was fascinating to lie in the tent and hear overnight the Moreporks (a type of owl) calling and the strange grunting whistling and snuffling noises of Possums - quite frightening the first time you hear heavy breathing outside the tent in the middle of the night! Then comes the start of the dawn chorus of Bellbirds, Tuis, Fantails and many others then the cicadas starting up in far distance where the sun was hitting the ground and getting closer and closer as the sun rose until one knew it was time to arise oneself.

We went on the longest of the circular tracks taking one first to a high viewpoint looking over the towering rock formations beside the site (322m) then back down to cross under the hill in a 500 metre long old mining adit, correctly called the number two level but always referred to as Collins drive. It was a bit wet and muddy in places but safe enough with a couple of torches and spare batteries. The tunnel has lots of glow-worms with their trailing sticky cords and surprisingly bright lights - some you could still see the lights even when a torch was illuminating them. Once out of the tunnel their are steep descents past more tunnels, we explored a few until they got too deep in mud.

There are remains to look at of the stations for the aerial ropeways that crossed high over the valley to the Stamper batteries used to extract the gold from the quart ore on the other side of the river. As we descended further the track made use of the old horse drawn tramways where one could still see one was walking on the remains of the sleepers. Finally we followed the route of an old water race round the side of the hill through short tunnels and over the remains of aqueducts until we reached the site of a major landslide almost opposite the Golden Hills Stamper Battery and then descended back down. It was a vigourous walk - the climb up never seemed to end - and definitely needed walking boots. With all our extensions it took close to three an a half hours, quite a bit longer than the DOC boards implied at the entry.

Note: Not all the tracks are marked on the maps and there now seems to be a shortcut down from Collins drive past the Aerial ropeway which would cut some time off at the expense of a number of interesting features such as the tramways, adits and water race. We also noticed that many of the information boards were missing - hopefully they are being refurbished but we were warned that there are pressures to play down the amount of goldmining in the past as a part of the campaigns against the restarting of some goldmining.

After a swim in the river, which has a reasonable swimming hole, we had recovered enough to do the two shorter walks the other side of the river which take one to the Broken Hills Battery and the Golden Hills Battery. We explored both a bit more than last time and found all sorts of interesting old structures buried in the bush as well as the foundations of the stampers. They were mostly tanks and other equipment concerned with the cyanide treatment of the ore as far as we could tell.

Thames

Thames - Goldmine and Stamper Battery. We spent the following morning in Thames soaking up more goldmining history. Firstly we went to the Thames Goldmine and Stamper Battery, which has a working Stamper Battery, separating table, Berdan and Mercury Distillation separator. You also a brief tour underground following the first trial adits (tunnel to non miners) which identified some Quartz reefs containing Gold. A very well spent $6 and a must to visit in the Coromandel - Gold was a major influence in the area and plays a unique part of NZ history.

Thames was the first area where gold was exploited in the Coromandel and had some exceptional rich Bonanzas, one where the Bullion (Gold and Silver) was over 50% of the Quartz reef and one blast reputedly produced 2 tons of quartz which contained 25,000 oz. of Bullion. Mostly it was only a few ounces per ton and as time went on the workings were taken as deep as 1000 ft and massive steam pump engines had to be installed. The guided tour and the comprehensive photo museum put into place a lot of what we had seen at Broken Hills in the way of abandoned batteries, adits and tramways.

Thames - Mining Museum and School of Mines. We also visited the Mining Museum and School of Mines. The School of Mines is no longer open every day out of season so we will have to return to see the most interesting part. The complex is owned by the NZ Historic Places Trust and it is worth noting that they have reciprocal arrangements with the UK National Trust so one can get in free. We now have a list of their properties and will follow up further. We bought a fascinating book "Coromandel Gold - A guide to the Historic Goldfields of the Coromandel Peninsula which has a lot of background and maps of all the major Goldfields and associated information producing a practical guide for visitors to experience something of the 'magic' of the old mining areas from the surviving features - long abandoned tunnels and shafts, crumbling foundations of Stamper batteries, rusting pieces of machinery and disused tramways and water races. We had seen many of these including Stamper Batteries in Broken Hills even on our short walks.

We returned to Thames a week or so later to revisit the Museum and School of Mines and see the bits of the School which had been closed the first time. We were just left to ourselves to wander round the School which finally closed in 1954. There is a lot of fascinating stuff and the laboratory looks as if it has never been changed - the bottles of reagents are still on the benches with their contents! There are also a lot of old photographs etc some of which showed the small Battery which was used for assays and experimental runs (one ton).

We then had a real piece of luck as I asked the person on the front desk if there was anything else left from the School and if we could see. It turned out there were a number of artifacts they hoped to restore and he took us into the old building to have a look. He was a fund of knowledge and we found out he had worked as the accountant for one of the gold firms and then had been the original curator when the museum was set up. He is now retired and only comes in as a volunteer. He is knowledge goes back a long way and, as he cycled off slowly into the distance we were told us he is now 87 - we hope we will be as fit, sharp and active at that age. He had stayed talking until well after normal closing up time.

As we were leaving I noticed on the shelves that some of the artifacts were for sale and we are now the proud owners of one of the original crucibles used for melting the Gold with a flux to purify it - even better it is from the Broken Hills area where we have camped and walked round the remains of the batteries several times.

It was a couple of years before we returned next the Museum and the School of Mines on a wet day on our way South from Coleville. It was close to three when we got to Thames and we only got into the Museum just before they closed. The gentleman in charge turned out to be the son of the gentleman who had taken a lot of time with us on our last visit three years before. We talked for quite a while past closing time and he made suggestion about where we could find some of the books we were looking for and told us about a place holding Internet auctions of the sort of books we wanted (The Crows Nest Bookshop in Hamilton). Since then we have discovered an excellent internet site for old books which we mention in our page on New Zealand Books.

Coromandel Town

Coromandel - the Government [Stamper] Battery. The Battery is actually several miles North of the town. Our first visit was in 1999 not long after the Government Battery had been restored to a working condition. The stamps were powered up briefly for one to see as awere a couple of the Berdans. There was also a Ball Mill in working condition feeding a small mercury amalgamating table. This first visit was slightly disappointing as the guide was not as knowledgeable as the one at Thames but the equipment was complementary and we considered it a worthwhile visit.

Our return visit in 2002 was much more interesting and instructive as the Government battery is now in the hands of a real enthusiast (and trained geologist) and we spent much longer with Ashley than we should have done and learnt a lot more than we would have got on a standard tour of half an hour or so - we were there almost 2 hours. He was a fund of knowledge on mining, past present and future, in the area and the battery is once more active processing small batches of ore.

The Governmemt Battery is especially interesting as it is the only Stamper Battery still working on the original site - as the name implies it was a small battery set up by the government for assay purposes and occasional small runs under contract. It was set up just after the turn of the century for crushing relatively small amounts of ore for small prospectors. This avoided their having to use the large batteries already in existence and risk their small quantity getting mixed in with larger batches. The Government Battery had a total of 6 stamps which were divided into a battery of 5 and a single stamp for testing small batches for assay. It was set up with money from the Institute of Mines at Thames, the Government and other interested parties. The gold is currently separated from the crushed ore and water on corduroy sheets as it leaves the Stamper heads ready for further processing. The gold being so much heavier sinks and collects on the corduroy.

As well as the Stamper battery there are three Berdans which grind the gold and other ore collected from the corduroy even further. This grinding is done with mercury present which dissolves the gold which can eventually be collected as an amalgam. The amalgam used to be separated using chamois leather but modern chamois leathers are oiled and do not work well so a synthetic material is currently being used. There is a big steel retort which is once more in active use for the distillation of the mercury amalgam over a wood/coke fire using an set up looking much like a forge. This 'forge' is the re-used to heat the gold/silver alloy left after the distillation in crucibles with a flux (mixture of various salts) to clean it before casting ready for assay - most bullion from the Coromandel is 70% silver and 30% gold.

There is also a Ball Mill, a technique which largely replaced Stampers as time passed. Ball Mills are large rotating drums with a number of steel balls which gradually grind the water and ore mix to a fine paste which can then be washed through fine filters and on to conventional separation mechanisms such as the corduroy sheets or mercury amalgam covered copper sheets. These days Ball Mills are used to treat ore before Cyanide treatment - a technique which was not used at the time the Government Battery was set up.

The Stamper is driven by an early Lister gas oil engine and the Berdans and other equipment by a large overshot water wheel - unfortunately not in operation on our second visit as the floods had blocked the outlet from the dam and it was far too dangerous to risk clearing it till the levels fell. The bridge over the "stream" beside the Battery was at serious risk from the raging torrent. Unfortunately the council had decided that a minor crack along one of the vast pieces of timber needed investigation and had put a flimsy prop right in the centre of the stream. Ashley said he had warned them what could happen if the stream came up and we could now hear the huge boulders being rolled down crashing against the prop. It had already been seriously distorted overnight and was now twisting the whole bridge - I suspect he is thankful it is a council bridge not his!

When we continued into Coromandel town we heard that many of the roads across the ranges and over the other side, which we had just left, were closed by floods and slips so it seemed prudent to head South for Thames after a lunch of the local speciality of Paua patty. Paua is a shellfish, similar to Abalone, living in shells with iridescent blues which are also turned into jewellery.

Colville School of Mines Museum. We also visited the Museum in the old Colville School of Mines in 1999. It not only has a number of mining artifacts but also covers something on the Kauri logging and Gum digging (for varnish) which was also carried out in the area. It is being built up, we gather, by an enthusiastic band of volunteers so it may well be more comprehensive in the future and even more worthy of a visit.