New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Hi Forum.

As an addendum to my earlier post, Karaka Stream in Thames itself is a case in point.

This was one of the first main creeks that was tried for alluvial Gold by the early miners in Thames, and it turned out most disappointing for them. Not that the odd pan or sluice load didn’t show good color occasionally, it was not consistent enough to rely on to provide a man with the means of a livable wage, unless countless hours and effort was sunk into the claims.

From memory I am sure I read that one group spent months attempting to sink a shaft down through all the stream overburden, obtaining a depth of 30 meters, and still didn’t reach bedrock, before they gave up and abandoned it, (Wouldn’t you??
Many others sunk many smaller shafts of up to 10 meters in various creeks with similar outcomes. In these lower creek reaches any gold on the bedrock remained unrecoverable by the old methods, and the powers that be would never allow a concentrated large dredging effort by the large rip, shit, or bust earthmovers and diggers which we process today too even attempt to recover this “Might just be there? Gold.

So if the bedrock of these streams does contain gold in good payable quantities,then it’s a sure bet that it looks like its set to stay down there!

Mind you, there was a creek in Coromandel itself that produced a few good nuggets in its day,

Cheers---Colin.

Edited by user Thursday, 3 February 2011 2:47:55 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thanks John!

Yeah, a good flood when you've done a lot of preparation work in cleaning down to what you think may be a good spot, can be really dishearting can't it. :)

================================================

Hi Forum.

Continuing on.

Just before you reach Coromandel Township by traveling up the Western side of the Peninsular from Thames there a few good creeks that yielded a lot of good alluvial gold in the old days!
In some of the small creeks that frequent this area the old boys gathered a heck of a lot of good Alluvial gold which had been shed from rich gold bearing reefs that ran right across these creeks, and which, in the course of being eroded by the water and all the debris,this gold was delivered directly into these creeks beds.
In those days it was easily recovered by the old boys due to the creeks being shallow and easily worked.
Now from memory again! The place to look for a lot of this gold was in a “REDDISH" sort of conglomerate rock that appeared in these creek beds as scattered deposits.

You could try there, as you never know your luck.

Cheers---Colin.

Edited by user Thursday, 3 February 2011 2:52:46 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

jeepers JW 6 days thats almost like work....buggar that!!
mind you would be alrite if ther was a few ounces down there for ya.i went out to day took about 1.5 hours to get set up dredged for 2 hours then the river started to flood that sucked as i had to pack up...3 hours of unpacking and packing up for 2 hours dredgn...dont now how much i got its still in the bin....o well bad day dredging is better than a good days work!!.

The only thing that's upsetting me Colin is that you're not giving me spots to check out down here - the Coromandel Peninsular's a long way for me to go! ;)

Salutations Gavin.

I just knew that you’d be understanding!

What do you mean, I don’t give you any good spots down there in the South---what about the Lyell one?

Too far away? Well one that springs to mind is located on the very tops of the “OLD MAN RANGE”. Mind you, Winter is not the time to go looking up there!
It’s a nice and strenuous hike in the Summer, but not congenial to a days outing, it has to be a planned trip for a few days,---maybe some Authority has upgraded the crap road that existed when I went up there, but I doubt it!

Anyway there’s nothing wrong with the whole area around Skippers canyon etc. all you have to do there is really suss it out, and go where others may not get to easily.

The south has innumerable opportunistic spots for getting gold, and you just about sit in the middle of some real good ones. Look around your home territory, and you may just be surprised by the possibilities that make the great fishing saying true: “Fish your feet first”
I’ll tell you a tip: Take a small kid prospecting with you if you can---Why---Because their a damn sight closer to the ground than you are, and possibly possess better eyesight. : )

All the best---Regards---Colin.

Edited by user Sunday, 30 January 2011 3:50:28 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi colin,i came to the forum as usual(several times a day)to see if there is any update to your earlier installment on coromandel,and bummer what a bombshell,i sat here dumbfounded speechless not really sure what to say,in a way i sort of understand what the person is saying about keeping secrets,so what is he doing on this forum?,maybe just here to make sure no one spills the beans,i live in the UK,when i was wandering around gold fossicking forums usually american,i noticed a chap named kiwijw,and i thought he has to be a kiwi lol,following his posts,he seemed to be a very knowlegeble guy,following him (no i am not a stalker LOL) i ended up on this newzealand site,thought wow our own newzealand site,and i have not looked anywhere else since,i joined straight away and here i am,from my armchair,i have learned crevicing,sluicing and a whole load of other stuff,actually i think i am a bit of an expert now,and to date i have not dug an inch of newzealand soil,so he does not have to worry about loosing all his gold,i try to come over to newzealand about every 18 months,north island,love going to coromandel for walks and general sight seeing,but let him just wait til i get over later on this year,sluice on my back and my shovels i am going to dig the lot up and post it on the forum to share with all my forumites,god can you imagine he could be bouncing up and down pulling his hair out.
Cant really say much more then you just keepon the way your are going colin,its been an enjoyable read so fardont let one person spoil it for the rest of us.
Happy hunting every one .
Mem

Well reading all that gave me a good old chuckle lol

Hi all

When i was living up north i did a bit of panning up the coromandel area found colour in a few of the creeks so was good fun from what i under stand a lot of gold was lost through the minnig procees be for they bought in the cyanide process so any water ways with in the old minnig sites should yeild some colour tho very small in size . Also when i was living in matamata i got talking to an old guy who said he and a mate had gained some colour in a few creeks draining from the kaimai ranges not that i ever got a chance to have a look . But the coromandel is an awsome place be it for gold or rock hunting, Thanks for the great posts

Regards cavey

Hello Mem.

Hands across the waters, and all that stuff. (Shake, Shake).
Mem, you’ve just about converted me to believing that there is such a phenomena as E.S.P?
That’s correct, this is New Zealand’s first very own fossicking site, and when I first found it, I too was quite happy that we had finally (sort of) come of age and now had our own site where we could share knowledge’s amongst other keen like minded Kiwis about some of the unique histories? of the old mining places in this country, or hopefully to share some of the more un-obvious locations about those old gold mining districts which sometimes take a long time to find out about. Also to share some of the more likely places where fellow member fossickers were gaining a little more than colors in their pans.
These aims are what I have endeavored to achieve, and to some extent I hope that I have succeeded in some small way in my attempts to make things a bit less mystifying, and more of what could turn out to be a more satisfying outdoors hobby activity for those of us that are willing to learn from the mistakes? of some of those who have gone before them, and whom have had to stumble around practically blindly in the search for information’s into the whys and wherefores of why some places produced gold, and yet there were others that produced no gold at all.

The reason for doing this, is that when I was young and adventurous,( also bulletproof?)
I always found that all the old miners etc. that I encountered in those days were so secretive about talking about their own experiences, that if you should approach the subject of “Good spots” they became like oysters and clammed up, and made comments like: Ooooo. Ahhhhh, Ummmm, Cough, Cough, well you could try here. “Here” usually turned out to be some spot where you spent a week washing gravels and never saw a trace of golden color in your pan.

But you learn fast that you’ve been had yet again, so in the end you don’t ask relevant questions from anyone, and blunder on, on your own, until you have some sort of successes. It is from these, and from being observant of where these occurred, that can help you to recognize some of the features that scream out Gold country. Once these features a tucked away in your brain, you can then venture further afield in your searches, knowing full well that you’ve done your initiating homework properly and become self supporting with your hard won knowledge’s.

Mind you, today’s searching for those things that I found so frustrating and time consuming, are basically
“A Piece of P--- “ to discover within the realms of the Internet World.

Yes, I have a lot of knowledge about golds habits and likely whereabouts, but I’m aging now and it is my wish to share some of these goodies before I pass on.
(Which could be in a couple of hundred years from now, if I have my way.) : )

Anyway enough Bullsh-- for now, somebody like yourself is quite welcome to look me up when you come over to N.Z

Cheers and many regards---Colin.

P.S. Bring another Armchair, as I haven’t got much meat on my butt end now. : )

Edited by user Thursday, 3 February 2011 12:45:15 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified