New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

does anyone have any recent material regarding the new gold rush that everyone is talking about here. i presume this is to do with the magnetic survey of northland?

i seem to have missed something in terms of the gold.

have they found a cinder cone? or any gold?

does anyone have some history on historic exploits looking for gold in northland.

i guess there's got to be gold there somewhere but i guess that just depends on how deep it is under all the sand, etc.

thanks creamer,

i don't know too much about northland and have only travelled around up there once on a 9000km nz roadtrip.

i know everyone sort of knocks northland but i believe it is a bit like southland in many aspects - lots of potential and lots of undeveloped mineral assets.

i don't think the mining itself is too much to worry about. the land is returned in a better state than it started. eg. the 1990's gold mines at nokomai (northern southland, island block (old clutha river channel), and a site next to the queenstown highway near milton are all examples of a return to pasture.

this costs the mining company lots but it is required to get mining. i think it all comes down to economics of course. how deep the minerals are and how much cost to strip the overburden. throw in a special area that is more than just pasture, ie. a national park, and their costs to mine would go up enormously.

i guess the first thing the successful bidders will do is some core sampling in their selected areas. while we are all talking gold i'm sure there will be other profitable minerals.

if i was you creamer i would be dreaming up some ways for small scale guys to get into it. i always find the best bet is to be on favourable terms others into similar things and with the landowners. there must be some farmers that don't quite have the time or knowledge that would let you on their place. often you just need to figure out what angle to work to get established. i've come across farmers that have been visiting up this way that have areas of their property that they work or plan to work. usually it is the same old story. lack of time due to farm chores, lack of knowledge of the processes and costs to get into the mining side of it. i think it helps to have someone to work off also, that offers encouragement and points out what they can improve on in their techniques to get the minerals out. time is money.

imagine if every little farm up there had a mine of some sort to supplement its income. northland may yet be the wealthy region. then again they have been saying similar things about southland's resources. only now have they started to get into the lignite. still dreaming of oil...