New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

If you don't get anyone to take you out, just go to the public fossiccing area on the Shotover. I got quite a bit of colour up at the top end of it just below where the jet boats turn around. Just look for the blacksand behind biggish rocks just out of the water.

Thanks Simon for the info, where abouts can I find you?

Thanks

I think in the old days you had to mark your claim with pegs. in the modern age you just get it surveyed then its up to all to investigate who owns the land they are on and then see what you are allowed to do on said land. basically all land is owned by someone, or some govt department. it would be silly to think it was 'wasteland' thus ripe for some sort of plundering. so it is each persons responsibility to find out such facts before digging/planting/fishing/tramping/building a shack or whatever.

Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of tools out and about nowadays that have no respect for other people's property and prefer to pull out any markers thus making it impossible for anyone to know what is claimed. there is also the natural elements out to destroy markers in floods etc. and even if marked some would say they simply didn't see said markers. and the cost of replacing signage is pretty steep. around here even the doc no camping signs get nicked.

I don't think it is any longer a govt requirement to stake a claim as such. this is done via paperwork and recorded for all to see online. it is up to each person to figure out. i think this is where half the confusion starts. a good example is the local river. because people see everyone else down there panning /sluicing or illegally dredging they presume it is ok to do the same. really if you don't do your research these days you are asking for trouble. it's no different with other stuff. you just have to research, and probably pay for your rights.

There is no requirement under the Crown Minerals Act to put signage up on a claim, and surveying and pegging a claim is at the discretion of the Minister. So the responsibility is on the claim jumpers to find out where they can go, the fact of the matter is that you cant fossick willy nilly everywhere you dam well like anyway, for that you nee a prospectors licence at the very least, which means you should have done some research and made an application for the area that you wish to prospect in, and you will have identified during this process where all the relevant permits are or are not.

Mining is not a right that you can do anywhere you please, in fact it is a very controlled activity. Claim owners are responsible for activities within their claim, so if poachers come in, make a mess and leave , the claim owner is responsible for the clean up as an example. There are usually strict mineral access arrangements with every claim of which fossickers and claim jumpers will not be aware of, and this is why a claim owner just cant let anyone come and use their claim.

Like it or not, the fossicker is stuck in the fossicking areas provided, unless they can arrange access on a permit. You simply cant wander anywhere you please and dig holes. Once upon a time there was miners permit you could by at the Post Office which did give you a kind of right to go everywhere, provided you had landowners permission and you weren't on anyone's claim, but those days are long gone, in fact you could blame Rogernomics for the destruction of these heirlooms. As the country has become more corporatised, the rights that you seek have now long gone to be a distant memory.

As has been mentioned countless times in this forum, group together and organise a claim that you can all frolic around in, you can sign post it peg it and do as you please then, you could even wear grand dadas undies if you want, but one thing you cant do is think you can go anywhere you please without any consequences if you get caught.

Sorry flintlock, i think you must have been referring to where the yellow kawarau jetboats go. i presumed wrong in thinking you meant the shotover jet boats. think i thought this as i haven't known anyone to go to the public area down there, might be why theres still gold there.

the claim i meant was from the old pub at arthurs point upstream. i see someone has dug up the river edge access good and proper. a good trench up to a metre deep right into the upper bank. some people are just idiots. it's this sort of shit that gets everyone in trouble and why no one is too keen to have weekend warriors on their claim as the claim owners are responsible for any mess made. luckily this river rights itself every time it floods but i have seen similar in banks that are then going to erode further. all for a couple of scraps of gold at best.