New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

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Intro and Questions

fisty		Posted : Tuesday, 19 August 2014 12:34:10 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/08/2014(UTC) Posts: 0 Location: Nelson		Hi guys/girls, I am a long time lurker first time poster, a little bit about me; I am mid 30's, successfully self employed, and I currently live in Nelson, although I am a proud Jaffa at heart. Yeah yeah :P I don't have the "fever" as such, but I do find gold and the hunt for it really interesting/exciting. So much so in fact that THE MRS and I are relocating to the west coast, I am switching careers and intend to grab a job with a gold mining outfit and do my NZQA in extractives onsite (probably to level 5-6), as well as get all my heavy machinery licensees to prep myself for working my own patch commercially. While initially I will be taking a reasonably substantial pay-cut, its just par for the course when you are learning new skills, and in the not too distant future I hope to be contributing to the west coast economy and community by providing jobs at my own little artisan gold mine. :o) I am sure that over the next few weeks/months/years you will become sick and tired on my seemingly endless dumb-ass questions, but as it is impossible for that to be the case right now - I shall bombard you with my ignorance! Right, so lets say after much research, I have decided on a small area (a few hectares) I suspect could be decent paying alluvial ground that I intend to practice drilling/mining/blowing up in my spare time, obviously when I am not being yelled at by my new 20 year old boss at the real mine. Where do I start? I mean yes, I can read. I can see on nzpam the forms/fees types of permits etc. But should I be forking out for a prospecting permit only to fork out again for an exploration/mining permit? Can I even jump straight to a mining permit or do I have to follow the hierarchy? ie: prospecting, exploration, mining. In your experience, should I employ some kind of consultation service to make it easier? ie: http://www.vcs.net.nz How much do they charge? I can handle paperwork, but some of the forms seems counter intuitive, with different requirements from local councils nzpam, doc etc. What is REALLY required? Do you have any tips that could make the process easier for me? Money saving tips are highly appreciated - although I am not skint, I am also not Richard Branson. Also; Quick drilling question - Has anyone here done alot of test drilling? Is it viable to drill your own test holes with a hand auger on the coast? (Clearing I dont intend on trying to bore through granite) Or is that just not going to work? Is the alternative to just dig great bloody holes all over the claim with an excavator? Employ someone with a small drilling rig? Thanks in advance!

goldhanded		Posted : Tuesday, 19 August 2014 2:51:04 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 29/03/2013(UTC) Posts: 43 Location: nationwide Thanks: 66 times Was thanked: 41 time(s) in 19 post(s)		Gidday Fisty,welcome to the wonderful world of chasing the yellow iron,I see you have some big plans.I suggest you do as much homework as you can regarding gold bearing areas,history is a great place to start.Government geology documents etc etc,I only say this because it will be a very expensive exercise if you start digging in the wrong places.Your money would be better spent employing an expert in the field that knows the coast,so preferably a Coaster that has an interest in getting you onto some good ground if you know what I mean,anyway I'm sure you will get a bit of feedback and good luck in your venture,you sound as though you are dedicated and you will need to be to be successful,I could be interested in a job if you are ever looking,even just prospecting,haha,cheers mate

fisty		Posted : Tuesday, 19 August 2014 9:23:01 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/08/2014(UTC) Posts: 0 Location: Nelson		Originally Posted by: goldhanded Gidday Fisty,welcome to the wonderful world of chasing the yellow iron,I see you have some big plans.I suggest you do as much homework as you can regarding gold bearing areas,history is a great place to start.Government geology documents etc etc,I only say this because it will be a very expensive exercise if you start digging in the wrong places.Your money would be better spent employing an expert in the field that knows the coast,so preferably a Coaster that has an interest in getting you onto some good ground if you know what I mean,anyway I'm sure you will get a bit of feedback and good luck in your venture,you sound as though you are dedicated and you will need to be to be successful,I could be interested in a job if you are ever looking,even just prospecting,haha,cheers mate Thanks for the welcome and the input, I can confidently say that I am quite far away from hiring just yet bro - I wouldn't even know where to put the diesel in a loader haha. That being said, I intend to follow this through, so if an opportunity arises sometime in the future I shall give you a holla sir!

gavzilla		Posted : Tuesday, 19 August 2014 10:36:01 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 24/02/2012(UTC) Posts: 60 Location: queenstown Thanks: 12 times Was thanked: 34 time(s) in 18 post(s)		G'day welcome to the site. there used to be a guy on here who would help out with getting claims organized, you will have to dig through the archives. Have you looked at getting an existing mine? Trade me usually has a few for sale, possibly cheaper than getting a brand new claim set up!

NUGGY		Posted : Tuesday, 19 August 2014 10:54:37 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 20/07/2012(UTC) Posts: 267 Location: greymouth Thanks: 85 times Was thanked: 76 time(s) in 58 post(s)		Lot of questions, if you are coming down this way send me a pm and you can get some of them - and a few you have not thought of yet - answered, for a flat white and an hour in a cafe. NUGGY

fisty		Posted : Wednesday, 20 August 2014 8:15:59 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/08/2014(UTC) Posts: 0 Location: Nelson		Originally Posted by: gavzilla G'day welcome to the site. there used to be a guy on here who would help out with getting claims organized, you will have to dig through the archives. Have you looked at getting an existing mine? Trade me usually has a few for sale, possibly cheaper than getting a brand new claim set up! Hi Gav, thanks - I will have a clamber through the archives. I did contemplate looking into existing claims for sale, but kind of came to the conclusion, that if the ground was really any good no one would flog it?

fisty		Posted : Wednesday, 20 August 2014 9:31:49 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/08/2014(UTC) Posts: 0 Location: Nelson		Originally Posted by: NUGGY Lot of questions, if you are coming down this way send me a pm and you can get some of them - and a few you have not thought of yet - answered, for a flat white and an hour in a cafe. NUGGY Thanks Nuggy, that sounds great - we will probably be on the coast at least a couple of times prior to finding a suitable location & house - I will pm you prior to our next trip and ill shout the coffees/beers.

gingerbreadman		Posted : Wednesday, 20 August 2014 4:05:01 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 19/07/2010(UTC) Posts: 473 Location: south of the black stump Thanks: 34 times Was thanked: 96 time(s) in 74 post(s)		Shifting to the coast to look for gold , wanting to work in a mine , wanting own mine= GOLD FEAVER :)

fisty		Posted : Wednesday, 20 August 2014 4:33:59 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/08/2014(UTC) Posts: 0 Location: Nelson		Haha, made me laugh out loud when I read that.

mineforgold.co.nz		Posted : Wednesday, 20 August 2014 6:18:31 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 14/11/2011(UTC) Posts: 299 Location: Nelson Thanks: 58 times Was thanked: 38 time(s) in 35 post(s)		I think you will soon tire of a hand auger! If you have to dig bloody great holes then you will be hoping to find a very rich vein of gold - the more material that you have you have to move that does not contain gold the less profits there are. Which is why there is still a lot of gold in the ground - that and DOC who are sitting on some of the richest gold deposits. But I have a digger if you want to practice before you get there! Edited by user Wednesday, 20 August 2014 6:19:04 PM(UTC) \| Reason: Not specified
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fisty		Posted : Thursday, 21 August 2014 9:34:48 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/08/2014(UTC) Posts: 0 Location: Nelson		Originally Posted by: mineforgold.co.nz I think you will soon tire of a hand auger! If you have to dig bloody great holes then you will be hoping to find a very rich vein of gold - the more material that you have you have to move that does not contain gold the less profits there are. Which is why there is still a lot of gold in the ground - that and DOC who are sitting on some of the richest gold deposits. But I have a digger if you want to practice before you get there! Hi! Yes, I too think manually hand turning an auger to X feet many times will soon drive me crackers. Is there a clever alternative though for test holes that dosent involve paying someone with a drilling rig hundreds of dollars per hole? Thanks very much for your kind offer of letting me have a practice in your digger, I am going to take you up on said offer, I just hope you can get me out of the machine before I dig all the way through to northern China! But seriously, thanks again - much appreciated.

gingerbreadman		Posted : Thursday, 21 August 2014 12:45:22 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 19/07/2010(UTC) Posts: 473 Location: south of the black stump Thanks: 34 times Was thanked: 96 time(s) in 74 post(s)		Originally Posted by: fisty Originally Posted by: mineforgold.co.nz I think you will soon tire of a hand auger! If you have to dig bloody great holes then you will be hoping to find a very rich vein of gold - the more material that you have you have to move that does not contain gold the less profits there are. Which is why there is still a lot of gold in the ground - that and DOC who are sitting on some of the richest gold deposits. But I have a digger if you want to practice before you get there! Hi! Yes, I too think manually hand turning an auger to X feet many times will soon drive me crackers. Is there a clever alternative though for test holes that dosent involve paying someone with a drilling rig hundreds of dollars per hole? Thanks very much for your kind offer of letting me have a practice in your digger, I am going to take you up on said offer, I just hope you can get me out of the machine before I dig all the way through to northern China! But seriously, thanks again - much appreciated. You would be better off hiring a digger and digging trenches drilling is insanely expensive and you need to drill lots of holes as the drills are not that big usually around 5-6" diameter to around 6 or 7 meters deep the deeper you want to drill the smaller the diameter or the bigger the rig needs to be so more $ i looked at buying a rig a few months back that attaches on the back of a tractor but fingered why buy the gear just to prove some ground when you can hire a digger or borrow ! but before any of the above starts firstly you need somewhere to dig thats were i came unstuck after the word was NO was repeatedly used..... farmers dont really like the idea of people digging or drilling holes in there nice paddocks so probably wise to talk to the land owner before buying a permit that covers there land or DOC to find out how much the access will cost also if you do manage to dig some holes there is an outfit on the coast that will test your exact grades for around $50 a bucket of material . if you were to look at buying the likes of an exploration permit just because its for sale dosnt necessarily mean its no good as sometimes people start a project and simply never go through with it especially if they have multiple permits or run out of money or time or they get some ground and just sit on it you would be surprised how many people do the latter.

fisty		Posted : Thursday, 21 August 2014 2:15:27 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/08/2014(UTC) Posts: 0 Location: Nelson		Thanks Ginger, that's all great info. So perhaps pits/trenches is the way to go, all the literature I have seen repeats drilling over and over, but perhaps that's got to do with the depth they are planning on going too?