New Zealand Gold Fossicking Forums

They have their place for checking out quartz if you suspect that the quartz is worth checking out and if you have one then by all means use it if you get a few bits of quartz from a known gold bearing location. If however you intend going around walloping up every bit of mundane quartz from Hallelujah through to Purgatory then you might be a bit disappointed. You also have to remember that the gold in most New Zealand quartz is so small that it is difficult if not impossible to see it without some magnification so that if you dolly it up then any gold you find is going to be awfully small unless you are purely lucky enough to find a bit of specimen quartz...and if you can see gold in it without pulverising it to pieces then it is best to keep it as a gold in quartz specimen.

Around forty five years ago I got a nice piece of quartz with gold freely visible dissipated throughout the sample so I decided to break it up a bit to see if there was anything better inside and all I ended up with was a lot of fragments and nothing much!

Dolly Pots also come in all sorts of sizes - small ones which some prospectors carried about as is evident by the fact that I found one buried in a Chinese miners hut dating from the 1880 - 1900 period and big ones I can no longer lift...I have one of them from Central Otago. I got it over thirty years ago and have only ever used it half a dozen times though saying that I have bags of quartz around the back yard which I just might be tempted to bust up one day when I have an idle moment - come to think of it most of my moments nowadays are idle moments...the quatrz in question definitely has gold in it so maybe an interesting exercise.

If you find some quartz in a seam in an old mine or similar then by all means have a play around - its an interesting way to spend a bit of time back home when you are in the 'prospecting mood'

G'day Lifejockey, Welcome to the forum. I have carried a dolly pot that I made around with me in the Coromandel many times. Up Karangahake, Neavesville, Waitakauri, Golden Cross, Maratoto, Komata Reefs, Broken Hills, Up behind Thames, Coromandel town, Kennedy Bay, Kuaotunu.....the list goes on.....I have crushed bucket loads of stone, panned off, & found jack shit. Even put the fines through mercury that I havnt retorted that lot yet to see what may or may not be there.
I have come across some very nice specimen stones in my travels around the Coro in my sluice box & with my crevice sucker tools. They are too nice on there own to crush up. The last nice piece I found last friday. If you havnt come across the pics that I put up elsewhere on here then here they are for you.

This is last fridays lot.



Close up of both sides of the little speci





Others I have found in the Coro













This piece was from Thames



Close up. Isnt that quite stunning??





So that stuff is coming from some where.....But do you think I can find it. Not through lack of trying I can tell you. I have raked, detected, trenched, divined but stuffed if I have stummbled onto it yet. But I will keep trying.

Happy hunting

JW :)

G'day Gaark, Yes. Absolutly. Little treasures all on there own & makes the time looking for them all the more worth it when you stummble on to one. They can be a long time between drinks though. Thanks

Regards

John :)

G'day L, Wow, a thumb size nugget. Thats impressive for the Coro. Was that found by you & do you have a photo of it?? Was it all gold or a specimen stone?? Cheers

Regards

JW :)

An update...

The nugget I speak of was found when removing the water tank, not constructing it..... and it wasn't deep. The dates are vague but it was found some time after a major flood went through the area. So I guess it was brought there by the flood. Now the river that is close by but not within throwing distance has a prospecting lease on it about where I would like to prospect. I will of course respect that and stay downstream of the limit of the lease.

But that nugget, if true and I believe it to be so...would possibly indicate it was very fine gold washed into a crevice or such over many years forming a nugget, then dislodged by the flood or maybe many floods. So if I'm right then there maybe many more in the area washed out by similar floods.

My question to you is how deep can one dig, or how much gravel can one move before one becomes illegal in the Coromandel?

L
ps. Is there a website describing the laws?

Further to Simon's words; -

This country is YOUR country and MY country but sadly run by rich sods for who cater for big business and their off shore masters - you are so right aobut deep pockets. Personally I think that the populace should bring the government to its knees and ensure for one and all time that the rights of ALL New Zealanders are assured by legislation so that we have more rights and more freedom within our own domain and especially in the realm of hunting, tramping, camping, fishing and yes gold fossicking.

There need to be many gold fossicking areas and they need to be extensive - for example the entire Arrow River and the entire Shotover should be open to the public. The use of say a small 3inch dredge should be allowed in the public fossicking areas subject to some restrictions. the good old Miners Rights which were issued until the late 60s and maybe into the 70s should be re introduced - this right extending your rights to fossick on all crown lands subject to lambing and permission from land occupiers to cross their land, camp on it or use the tracks.

In the meantime I would think it fair and square if anyone who wants to go and look for a bit of gold goes for their life but uses common sense not to draw attention to themselves with high profile equipment - ranging from dredges on trailers through to large earth moving equipment. At this point in time most people have no objection to someone with a pan and shovel enjoying a day out.

Good luck with that one Lammerlaw. We had a chance to vote in a party that had a mandate to listen to the people and didn't. Therefore we are stuck with our democratically elected dictatorships for at least another 3 years.

I suspect free enterprise mining will only become more unlikely if certain sectors of the population get to buy into our state owned mining company.

Yes I know and I sure in hell did my part BUT the fools who want to sell us down the drain to make another dollar voted in the puppets without realising that they are voting in the very means by which this country is getting sold down the drain and voting in the very means by which they are eroding their own rights. Hopefully people will see the light before it is too late and not after it is too late.

It is only when you have fifty years and more to see the differences in rights and lifestyle that you can see what is actually happening as the younger generation only know what we have now and have nothing to compare it with.