Ever since the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California, men have been using a variety of methods to extract gold from the ground. He said almost 57 tonnes of gold had been extracted from the West Coast since 1870 and there was still plenty of gold left in Reefton.Gold mining in the United States is just a shadow of what it used to be. Pazuki said most of the staff had been re-employed either at other Oceana sites or on the West Coast. The company would spend up to $2million on rehabilitating its New Zealand operations in Reefton, Macraes and Waihi. Six staff would remain, four to look after the plant and equipment and two to work on rehabilitating the site. We require a higher gold price to be economic," he said. If there is a change in the gold price we can reopen. Our consent runs out in 2019 and the mine will remain in care and maintenance until then. "it is not profitable to remain operating. The company's director of investor relations Sam Pazuki said the mine was put into care and maintenance due to the fall in gold price. At its peak it employed 240 people but stopped operating in November. OceanaGold has been operating a gold mine in Reefton since 2007. The small operators who use diggers and dredges are able to survive because they have lower production costs than hard rock mining like OceanaGold in Reefton. Not every mining permit becomes an operational gold mine," he said. These guys work long hours and there have been more failures than successes. The challenges facing the industry are access to land, the time and costs involved in getting mining permits and consents have increased in the last 12 to 24 months. Alluvial gold mining seems to have held its own despite the falling gold price. "There's no question it's a challenging time for the industry. Minerals West Coast manager Phil McKinnel said there were about 30 small to medium family-owned alluvial gold mining companies operating on the Coast. I put my time into that looking after local interests and jobs," he said. I've had a living here so you have to give something back. The staunch National supporter will run for reelection to the regional council this year. But I got elected and they can't pick and choose who gets elected," he said. The green people don't like me being on the council. I should never have been charged in the first place. "It was nine charges, they dropped one and went ahead with eight and they got thrown out. The Department of Conservation had charged him with undertaking commercial goldmining without authority, interfering with natural features and damaging or removing vegetation on conservation land at Blackball Creek and the Grey River.
Eighty-seven per cent of the land is controlled by the government and access is always an issue," he said.īirchfield successfully defended charges of illegal gold mining in 2013. Most of the rivers and creeks run gold if you can get access to them. Real estate agent Greg Daly said he had a lot of enquires about the dredge from overseas including US and China, after it had been at international trade shows.īirchfield said the gold industry on the West Coast still had a viable future, if more land was opened up. The dredge was up for sale on Trade Me and price was up for negotiation. Now is the time to pass the knowledge on to new people." It's too big a job for me to continue on, the project has another 10, 20 years to run and I need to pass it over now. The 65-year-old grandfather of four will retire and spend time with his family. He said it has made him a good living and believes the gold price is "not too bad" at $1600 an ounce this week. We've done 250ha, but there's as much ground to do as I've done already," he said. "We've taken two tonnes of gold out, and there's more left than what we've taken. Included in the sale is all equipment, office buildings, 106ha of rehabilitated land and mining permit.īirchfield has taken almost two tonnes of gold out of the river and estimates more than four tonnes are within the permit and consented area. It can dredge up to 800 cubic metres an hour and runs on electricity.
The 3500 tonne dredge was built pre-World War 2 and originally operated in Kaniere, but was moved to Ngahere where it's been operating since 1987. It's got a new resource consent and it's got a mining permit and access arrangements in place. The dredge hasn't been operating for the last three years which Birchfield has spent fighting for a new resource consent for the mine.Īfter objections from three adjoining landowners and Fish & Game and a public hearing, he was granted a resource consent six months ago for an area which would take up to 20 years to mine and employ up to 30 people, he said.
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