New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Hi all. Went to the old Puhipuhi mines with Crisyboy for a more extensive viewing of the old ruins of wot we think was the mercury mine. Covered a whole hillside. There are silver mines in the area. Very small traces of gold were found whilst mining in this area years ago. Bro put in some serious homework to find this place and was no easy task as it is all overgrown in a vast area. A hard to see train line goes into the mining area. Totally awesome being there and then trying to imagine wot it was like all cleared and running back then. Like its all gone back to nature/native. Great day and even found my first GOLD ring/anything that arvo, with bro, at a local spot detectoring.

15 minute walk from here.






Big furnice stacks






A mining sign further up the road






My first ever GOLD anything. A 10k gold ring and some nice silver.

Edited by user Sunday, 30 October 2011 6:28:36 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Heck yeh. A pillagers paradise. We found a couple of bottles and some small stuff but we left the place as we found it. Although we did want to bring stuff home. Very unique place and i hope doc manage to revive it somehow. The track has had some work done.
Fossicked this stuff on my trip. Bro in law gave me the cartridges. Bro gave me the rocks/stones. A 1 shilling/10 cent piece. The bottle is from the mine and we detected the rings/silver.


Shane

Edited by user Monday, 31 October 2011 8:01:01 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

It is a wonder. There was a continuous amount of iron/metal in and on the ground over the whole area, and i mean a huge area like a hillside. The bottle was found in a small tip/garbage area. There were several scattered over the place. Bits of pots, Some weird electrical stuff. Quite a few bottles. Tonnes of corrugated iron. Tread with caution in this area. Oh yeh. Couldnt detect because the ground was alive with metal. So yes, there is alot of stuff just lying around. We only took a tiny remnent each.

Shane