G'day Timbarra ,
Any person who wishes to establish a dredging claim (Mining Permit) on a New Zealand river has to deal with New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals (formally Crown Minerals) (
www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/minerals ), along with the relevant Regional Council (local government), the Dept of Conservation (DoC), the local Iwi (
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwi#Iwi_and_politics ) and possibly a landowner if private land has to be crossed to get to the river. And it may also be necessary to deal with other "interested parties" who might raise an objection to the granting of a Resource Consent. And if one of the "interested parties" is a well funded environmental lobby group and/or Fish and Game, then the process can drag on much longer than it should with costs to the applicant increasing the longer it all takes to be resolved.
As a first step in the legal process, New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals have to be contacted so a Mining Permit, or possibly an Exploration Permit or maybe even a Prospecting Permit, can be applied for. There is an upfront fee of well over NZ$1,000 for the first Permit application from New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals with more charges to follow
www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/minerals/permits/permits-how-do-i-apply-faqs/how-much-do-they-cost . The process Crown Minerals will go through in assessing an application is fairly straight forward and will mainly consist of determining if there is an Exploration or Mining Permit or Prospecting Permit already over the area applied for. In Otago especially, it is highly likely there will already be an Exploration Permit covering the river applied for and that will require consultation with the parties involved before an application can proceed. Crown Minerals do not evaluate any of the environmental impacts but may examine some health and safety issues.
The next step is to apply for Resource Consents which will examine the environmental issues. Its advisable to apply for the Resource Consents at about the same time a Mining Permit application is submitted to New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals, rather than waiting many months (about 6 months at present) until the Mining Permits are granted ... or have been refused. There are different Regional Councils in different areas of New Zealand's South Island with the Councils in the main gold producing areas being the Otago Regional Council (ORC) (
www.orc.govt.nz/ ) and the West Coast Regional Council
www.wcrc.govt.nz/consents/ (and maybe the Tasman council). In Otago the ORC has consent regulations specifically for eductor dredging, which means that its
not necessary to apply for a Resource Consent (non-notifiable consent) if its intended that no dredges larger than a dredge with an intake of 6" will be used. If the applicant wants to use a dredge larger than 6" then a Resource Consent will have to be applied for. And in Otago there are a number of rivers deemed by the ORC as unsuitable for dredging because they are environmentally sensitive (
www.orc.govt.nz/Publications-and-Reports/Regional-Policies-and-Plans/Regional-Plan-Water/ )
On the West Coast, the West Coast Regional Council will have to determine what Resource Consents are required and I believe the assessment process with this council is less stringent for small dredges that it is for dredges larger than 6 inch in size.
The DoC manage most rivers in New Zealand and as such there may need to be consultation with them
www.doc.govt.nz/about-doc/concessions-and-permits/prospecting-exploration-and-mining/ .
Most rivers can be accessed via a public right of way, however there are some rivers which can only be accessed through private property. And to get access it would then be necessary to get permission from the landowner, which may involve the payment of a fee (
wams.org.nz/wams/ ) .
However ... before any of the above can be commenced its obvious that a suitable river must have already been located to claim. And this in itself is a near impossible task for someone who comes to New Zealand for the first time and knows nothing of the rivers here. For example, a miner coming to New Zealand for the first time is likely to be unaware what rivers have had trommel plants through them back in the 80s when the use of excavators were legal in live rivers and when those rivers were mined from bank to bank and down to bedrock. And then there are the numerous New Zealand rivers that have already been heavily eductor dredged in the 80s and 90s ... which incidentally does not necessarily make a river now totally unsuitable to dredge, but can sure make dredging much more difficult, especially for the inexperienced. The best example I can think of is Lyell creek
tinyurl.com/kk8k24 which was heavily dredged up until a few years ago. And what makes it a particularly unsuitable river to dredge these days is that it was dredged by an experienced professional Kiwi dredger who knew what he was doing ... compared to most recreational dredgers who don't have enough experience to get on to pay streaks and never put in enough hours to get even a fraction of the gold from a river. However its worth adding that there are most likely some remaining spots in the Lyell with good gold, but ... the only person who knows where those spots are located, would be the professional dredger who previously dredged the river so thoroughly. And for someone else to come along to attempt to dredge the Lyell these days they would probably run out of money before they could find any of the remaining hot spots. Another way overseas dredges can go broke in New Zealand is when they are mislead and put on to unsuitable rivers. There is a well known example of this that occurred back in the mid 90s when some visiting Australians hooked up with a hobby dredger who had two small claims on the lower Buller near Berlins. What the Australians 'did' know about the Buller in general was that this river had been a good producer of gold for Kiwi dredgers in earlier years, but what they did 'not' know was that all the gold was dredged from far upstream, in the upper Buller Gorge. They did not know that downstream from the upper Buller Gorge the Buller was poorly auriferous and a very different river. And they were also probably unaware that bucket dredging had previously been carried out in the Buller in its lower reaches. While on the claims, they first found that the floods in the lower reaches were so regular, even in the summer months, that there was no way they were able to put in enough dredging time even if the claims had good gold. And when they did manage to occasionally get in the river, between floods, there was not even enough gold to cover petrol costs. Their best day was only 20 grams with a 7 inch triple sluice dredge with most dredging days nowhere near that. If they had only done something as simple as dredging the upper Buller Gorge instead of the lower Buller Gorge things would probably have been very different and they would not have had to go back to Australia with their tails between their legs.
When I first came to New Zealand I was involved in a dredging project that turned out equally disastrous after I was misled. It started when I arranged with a Kiwi claim owner to dredge his claim under a tribute arrangement, and the next summer we arrived with three dredges imported from Australia (with all the expense that involved). We then got the dredges in the water during the Spring months when the water was still cold so we could get an early start to the season. After dragging the dredges for many klms up river through rapids and against a strong current, we then started dredging. And after being underway for only a short period, and looking forward to a good season to get our investment back, the Mines Inspector turned up one afternoon. He told us that the claim was not fully granted and we had to stop dredging immediately. Later I learned that the claim was not fully legal ... for the one simple fact that the required cash bond had not been paid to Crown Minerals by the claim owner. The summer before the claim owner had told me it was all legal and, as I know now, his intention all along was to only pay the bond out of the tribute money we would have given to him after dredging for a month or two ( we had stupidly not checked with Crown Minerals to see for ourselves that it was a fully granted claim).
To avoid the bureaucratic process refered to above, the best way for an overseas dredger to dredge in New Zealand would be to work someone else's established claim on a tribute arrangement. And although this is the simplest way to proceed there is some diligence still required. In this business don't take anyones word for anything and always check if a claim is fully granted and check the claim conditions which will state the largest size dredge permitted and any environmental restrictions in place.
img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/Coochee/GoldMinersDespairAAA-1.jpg?t=1187567181img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/Coochee/greystar22.jpg?t=1193438750www.odt.co.nz/regions/central-otago/2211/gold-hills-only-dedicatedwww.odt.co.nz/regions/south-otago/2516/miner-applies-dredge-lower-clutha-goldwww.odt.co.nz/the-regions/southland/12469/conditions-make-gold-mining-project-marginalimg.photobucket.com/albums/v172/Coochee/vffretreOKOKOK.jpg?t=1217546221img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/Coochee/HOT%20LINKED%20PHOTOS/P1010031.jpg?t=1226109707img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/Coochee/greystarHHHH.jpg?t=1238013340Regards,
Rob (RKC)
