Gold dredge tailings 'premier site'

[RKC]

G'day,


Gold dredge tailings 'premier site'


Historic gold dredge tailings at Earnscleugh are the "premier site'' to preserve and interpret alluvial dredging in this country.
The claim is made in a report supporting the area on the true right bank of the Clutha River being made a Category 1 historic place on Heritage New Zealand's list.

The proposal is open for submissions until April 12. Most of the tailings on that side of the river are within a historic reserve, covering 165.5ha.


www.odt.co.nz/regions/central-otago/377648/gold-dredge-tailings-premier-site

Regards,
Rob (RKC)

[golddigger7]

fair enuf, now they just need to preserve one lot of water races and a couple of sluicing sites as good historic examples, and leave the rest alone. Its time we should be allowed to bulldoze and rip up former sluice sites to get the gold that was missed :-)

[RKC]

G'day golddigger7,

Because all of this is idealogical and there is an agenda driving it, there is never an end to what 'they' want to lock up.

Otago miners have long known that there is viable gold remaining in the Earnscleugh tailings that would be well worth mining using modern mining techniques. Back in the 1980s Otago miners applied for a Permit to mine the tailings for gold, which was soundly rejected by the authorities. The tailings were then made a historic reserve. Bizarrely, a gravel extraction plant was permitted to operate in the tailings for many years, which would have had the same impact as a gold recovery operation.



Regards,
Rob (RKC)

[mwyatt]

Agree with you Rob. So how do we appose this proposal?

[RKC]

G'day mwyatt,

There will never be any mining of the tailings, so ... there may as well be some protection of the site. It is already a historical site so these new proposals are probably an upgrading of the status of the site. There have been problems with people going in and taking relics (dredge parts), and trail-bikes going off the tracks. So an upgrade will most likely increase enforcement powers. With any of these incremental "upgrades" the devil is usually in the detail, or in what the public is not told.

Submissions are largely useless as they are only political theatre to give the appearance of consultation. Submitters have no power and those with the power (politicians) always get their way ... whatever is in any submission!

Regards,
Rob (RKC)



New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero – Report for a Historic Place
Earnscleugh Tailings, Earnscleugh (List No. 9267, Category 1)

www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/-/media/bf79ce12253f47f293869dfb082dc7d1.ashx.

[mwyatt]

So I take it that you won't be able to Metal Detect in the area? Since it's Category 1 historic place.

[RKC]

G'day mwyatt,

Well ... technically you cannot, and never could, legally detect the Earnscleugh tailings for gold. Strictly speaking you can only detect for gold on a fully granted Permit (with permission of the Permit owner, or if you are the Permit owner) or ... on a Crown Minerals public fossicking Permit area.

If you did detect the Earnscleugh tailings you would have to be prepared for a boring day!  You would go hours without a signal (trash or otherwise). I had a go at it many years back and just walked away with many depeleted batteries. And even further back a well know American detectorist who writes books and articles about detecting had a go at it. And if he had done any good you can be sure he would have written about it, and told the world. There is a problem with detecting any tailings from previous mining operations, in Otago, that makes it extremely difficult to get anything yellow except for pieces of a few grains in weight that don't tend to easily head downward toward bedrock. The climate in Otago is one of extreme temperatures each and every year. Tailings freeze up in winter, and free-up in summer to become quiet lose. In effect all Otago tailings, especially those the higher in elevation you go, significantly expand and contract regularly every year. Thus any gold (expect for pieces of a few grains in weight) remaining in the tailings will go down toward bedrock quiet quickly and only finally stop when hitting solid bedrock. Its hard to image anywhere in the world where the extremes of temperature each year are so pronounced. In places like Alaska there are more severe cold temperatures but they have a permafrost that does not melt in Summer to allow gold to pass on its way down to bedrock. 

Otago on a whole is a difficult place to detect with lots of problems (bullets and iron junk is everywhere, for example ... and then there are the hordes of nimbies, and cranky farmers) that make it a frustrating process and not at all fun. Most nugget gold that is coming out of Otago there days comes from the streams. 


Regards,
Rob (RKC)

[golddigger7]

Not to mention that the Tailings are very fines free and loose, they would work like quick sand for any heavy particles.