Dredging a New Zealand Mountain Stream
Nov 13, 2009 19:41:48 GMT 12
Post by RKC on Nov 13, 2009 19:41:48 GMT 12
DREDGING A NEW ZEALAND MOUNTAIN STREAM
By RKC
After watching the helicopter fly away until it disappeared from view, I made a start unpacking the cartons that lay scattered about. Every remaining minute of daylight was needed if I was to have my camp established before sunset, and my dredge assembled so I could make an early start to dredging the following morning.
The helicopter had arrived two hours earlier, not long after the first light of day. I was waiting for its arrival at the road's end with four loads of cartons that were packed securely and ready to be airlifted. Immediately on landing the pilot inspected each carton to ensure all could be lifted safely. Then it was my job to hook a load on to a long chain hanging from the helicopter hovering overhead. And with each return of the helicopter after about 25 minutes, I would hook on another load.
After getting three loads away successfully I flew in with the final load. At first the helicopter had difficulty gaining height because I had made the mistake of over-packing the last load.
However once we had some wind behind us we effortlessly crossed mountain terrain I had only previously walked over on prospecting trips -- a tough three-hour hike through trackless country and up a stream-bed that in one gorge is near impassable because of truck-sized boulders.
My first sight on arrival was of my 5-inch sampling dredge conveniently placed on a gravel beach in the stream-bed by the always helpful pilot. As directed, he had placed the cartons containing my camping gear and provisions on the only few square meters of flattish ground available for a camp site in this steep sided valley. And this is where I stood as I watched the helicopter fly away.
Typical alluvial gold from an Otago river.
It was the first of February, high summer in the south of New Zealands South Island, yet there was still some snow clinging to the top peaks of the mountain range to the west. The surrounding vegetation was knee-high alpine tussock grassland, which permitted me unlimited visibility in all directions...and also made me highly visible to anyone else.
My reason for being here was the gold-bearing Shiel Burn stream that flowed peacefully just a few meters below.
This was extremely remote mountain country that is snow covered for half the year. Nevertheless, many miners had preceded me not only prospecting but also mining. The research of history books I had carried out informed me that the miners of the late 1800s could find no 'payable' gold any further upstream from where I was about to set up my camp. This did not discourage me as I knew from past experience that many of the waterways the original miners considered non-payable for hand mining, could be viable now by utilizing modern mining equipment such as the suction dredge I would be using the next day.
As I looked down into the crystal clear water I could easily see lines of near perfectly straight stone walls up to one meter high, which were the remains of wingdams. In this district during the late 1800s, and even as recently as the 1930s, wingdaming was commonly used to drain shallow streams to permit hand mining of the bedrock crevices. And these walls were the best constructed I had ever seen, with each stone so precisely placed one on the other, that they had withstood the severe flooding that occurs each year during the spring thaw.
Apart from what I knew of previous mining carried out here in the late 1800s and during the 1930s, I was also well aware that I was not the first modern-day miner to search this stream. I knew of at least four recreational fossickers getting heavy gold here some years earlier with their locally manufactured, lightweight dredges they called the NZ suitcase dredge.
Knowing this had again not discouraged me as I was certain any gold they had dredged could have only come from shallow, easily exposed crevices at the sides of the stream. The suitcase dredge they used were near useless because of extremely poor design and were so lacking in power that it would have been impossible for them to move any great amount of overburden to permit access of the crevices in the main body of the stream-bed. I confidently expected sufficient remaining gold to at least return me the expense of getting in here while I determined the viability of this stream for large-scale commercial dredging.
In addition, a few years earlier I had been shown eight ounces of chunky gold that a visiting miner from California had sniped from this stream within sight of where I was about to set up camp.
Prior to my arrival the only serious attempt to dredge this stream had occurred twelve months earlier when a very experienced Kiwi miner had his six-inch production dredge flown in. And when he'd made the decision to dredge this stream he'd thought little of it, other than to consider that there was gold waiting to be mined. After all, he was only doing exactly what he had been doing for many years previously to earn his living. This time however, his decision as to where and when to dredge was to set in motion a series of events that would eventually affect all Kiwi dredgers.
This miners first week of dredging had been conventional enough. He got on to gold immediately and each day was producing a constant half an ounce of fine flood gold from a section of stream-bed that had been hand mined a great many years earlier. It was less than he would normally require as his minimum daily production but he remained content. And if the weather stayed reasonably mild he intended to continue dredging until the first week of Winter, which was still months away.
The fateful day it all came to an abrupt end had started out better than those before when he uncovered a deep virgin crevice containing heavy gold. Then, as he was about to make a start on mining the crevice, he became aware of a disturbance above and on surfacing he saw a large helicopter hovering with its skids lightly resting on the crest of a nearby ridge.
Three men had already alighted and were heading toward him. One was easily recognized from a distance as a policeman in uniform and the other two men the miner identified as they got closer. Striding purposefully in the lead was the Resource Management Officer (RMO) for this district, followed by a Mines Inspector.
The miner and the RMO had met once previously a few months earlier in the nearby Arrow River when he had been challenged about dredging without the legally required permits and consents. A heated and at times very bitter confrontation had ensued with the miner forced to remove his dredge from the river and bluntly told he would need to complete all legal requirements before attempting to dredge again -- "requirements" that could take twelve months or more to conclude and cost thousands of dollars in government charges. And even then his application could be refused without reasonable explanation and with no right of refund for expenses incured.
Now it was about to happen all over again in the Shiel Burn! The difference this time was that they had found him in a stream where he had thought reasonably enough, he was so remote as to be unlocatable and curiously, this time they had a policeman with them. That they managed to find him in this particular stream at that particular time, was more than suspicious and the presence of a police officer to ride shotgun indicated possibly some feelings of paranoia by the bureaucrats.
The RMO was quick to speak first when he unwisely referred to this stream as being where the miner had chosen to "hide". A lengthy and bitter exchange between the two followed. The miner then boldly asked if they, like he, had permission from the landowner to be here on private property?
Once each protagonist tired of venting his anger, it was obvious any more talk was pointless. The miner had been caught red-handed and everyone present knew it. The RMO then wrote out an Enforcement Order that formally stated mining was to cease. The order also required the miner to respond in writting to the Regional Government Authorities explaining why he was again mining without any permits and consents. The bureaucrats then set about gaining 'evidence'. Photos were taken of the dredge and samples of the stream water were collected above and below the dredge for comparison tests that measured turbidity levels.
Next, with the miner and policeman passively looking on, a conversation began between the RMO and the Mines Inspector, that quickly became heated. At first, it seemed to the miner that they were discussing obscure points of law. Then after each eyed the other with their voices raised, the miner realized they were arguing over which of them had the greater legal power to permit them to be the one to officially charge the miner.
The miner could only look on bemused at the bizarre scene of these two bureaucrats standing kneedeep in the freezing waters of an extremely remote high country stream, arguing over who would have the 'pleasure' of charging him...and at this stage the policeman must have been wondering to himself if he was about to get his own feet wet separating the two bureaucrats.
Finally, to bring an end to the events of the day, the RMO turned to the miner and offered to fly him out, with his dredge and all equipment as they returned to the helicopters base airfield in Queenstown. The miner refused the offer. He did however give them his assurance that he would cease dredging, while forcefully stating that his dredge was to stay put. Later that day, after securing his dredge above flood level, he walked out to the road's end.
Upon returning to his home in Arrowtown, the miner met with other dredgers who had experienced similar recent confrontations with the RMO while dredging. They all knew something had to be done...but what?
After many had angrily expressed their thoughts about the perverse pleasure the RMO had exhibited when hunting down miners, they began to seriously consider their options. After much discussion it appeared their only choices were to either attempt to conform to the regulations or to lobby the government to have new regulations introduced. That, or simply ignore any regulations and operate as privateers.
Newspaper clippings from that time.
It had been the introduction of new environmental laws (The Resource Management Act) in 1991 that had been the motivation for the authorities to seek out "illegally" operating dredgers. Where it related to mining, this new legislation had transferred the control and management of the environmental aspects of mining from Mines Inspectors to Regional (local) Government. In effect, these smallest of the small-scale miners of New Zealand had virtually overnight gone from being mostly ignored by a government that had regarded them as only hobbyists who didn't rate serious consideration, to being enthusiatically sought out to be informed that they must now strictly comply with the regulations.
The regional authorities had however failed to realize that the regulations they were insisting be complied with were unworkable for the majority of dredgers who were recreational and nomadic. And the regulations were also much too complicated and expensive to comply with, even for many professional dredgers and especially so when a dredger was only prospecting with his dredge or when dredging a small deposit that would be worked out in a week or two.
The Regional Aurhorities continued with their heavy handed approach by then deciding -- during a closed-door council meeting -- to charge the professional miner with unauthorised mining of the Shiel Burn. This development only further inflamed feelings among the miners and in response a meeting was hastily arranged to discuss what was to be done.
And it proved to be a most useful meeting that was addressed by a heavyweight politician from the Central Government (a Cabinet Minister) who expressed his support for the miners. Boosted by his support the miners were no longer apprehensive about how to proceed. They wanted nothing less than a change to the laws!
Following newspaper publicity of the charges pending against the miner and two court appearences when no conclusion was reached, and representations on the miners behalf by the Cabinet Minister, the charges were withdrawn. This turn of events then permitted each side to adopt a calmer and more constructive approach.
The Regional Authorities next employed an independant consultant to examine the issue of suction dredge mining in detail and produce a report that could be considered.
In compling the report the consultant met with the miners and listened to their viewpoint along with considering the views of other groups with an interest in the issue, such as local environmental groups, anglers associations and various government departments.
At the same time, the dredgers increased their lobbying efforts by producing submissions, compiling their own report, holding a field day to demonstrate a recreational and production dredge operating, writting letters to newspapers, contributing to newspaper articals on the issue, contacting miners associations in other countries to learn of the latest environmental information, and so on. The miners also held numerous meetings among themselves as the matter progressed over a number of years.
My own arrival on the Shiel Burn that February morning was without any permits or consents permitting mining, so I guess I was also mining "illegally". However by that time I was confident the Regional Authorities had tired of searching the high country for dredgers...AND I was feeling lucky. The previous summer I had been one of the few dredgers who had not had a confrontation with the RMO.
The closest he came to ambushing me was when, by chance, I'd had my dredge flown out of the Arrow River headwaters one day before his search of that river by helicopter.
I enjoyed an uneventful six weeks dredging the Shiel Burn and the only people I saw all the time I was there were two friendly hunters who called at my camp while hiking to even higher peaks intent on baging a trophy chamois. And only one helicopter came anywhere nearby when a noisy turbojet mischievously flew directly overhead waking me early one morning. I was later to learn that it carried a Kiwi miner, who was on his way further into the headwaters of the Shiel Burn for a few days of prospecting with a metal detector.
The gold I dredged from the Shiel Burn could only be said to be reasonable. After extensive sampling, this stream proved unsuitable for my requirements as a commercial proposition where I could establish a claim (Mining Permit) on which I could employ a team of miners to operate Production Dredges. My best day was when I found and got to finish dredging the deep virgin crevice the previous professional dredger had been forced to leave under such unfortunate circumstances twelve months earlier. All the gold from this crevice comprised heavy pieces and it was one of my most memorable dredging days ever.
Since the mid 1990s when these events took place, and following a lengthy and involved review of the suction dredging regulations, much has changed for the gold dredgers of New Zealand.
It is now more practical for professional dredgers to apply for claims, although the government charges and compliance costs remain unreasonably high. And to provide for the recreational dredgers, the Crown Minerals Division of The Ministry of Economic Development are in the process of introducing a new system for recreational dredging that will have reduced government charges and special conditions applicable.
Roads End, Branches Station upper Shotover river.
____________________________________
This artical was first published in 'Australian Gold Gem and Treasure' magazine, Vol 15, No 1. (2000 Yearbook) and is reproduced with permission of Express Publications (copyright, all rights reserved).
Regards,
Rob (RKC)
By RKC
After watching the helicopter fly away until it disappeared from view, I made a start unpacking the cartons that lay scattered about. Every remaining minute of daylight was needed if I was to have my camp established before sunset, and my dredge assembled so I could make an early start to dredging the following morning.
The helicopter had arrived two hours earlier, not long after the first light of day. I was waiting for its arrival at the road's end with four loads of cartons that were packed securely and ready to be airlifted. Immediately on landing the pilot inspected each carton to ensure all could be lifted safely. Then it was my job to hook a load on to a long chain hanging from the helicopter hovering overhead. And with each return of the helicopter after about 25 minutes, I would hook on another load.
After getting three loads away successfully I flew in with the final load. At first the helicopter had difficulty gaining height because I had made the mistake of over-packing the last load.
However once we had some wind behind us we effortlessly crossed mountain terrain I had only previously walked over on prospecting trips -- a tough three-hour hike through trackless country and up a stream-bed that in one gorge is near impassable because of truck-sized boulders.
My first sight on arrival was of my 5-inch sampling dredge conveniently placed on a gravel beach in the stream-bed by the always helpful pilot. As directed, he had placed the cartons containing my camping gear and provisions on the only few square meters of flattish ground available for a camp site in this steep sided valley. And this is where I stood as I watched the helicopter fly away.
Typical alluvial gold from an Otago river.
It was the first of February, high summer in the south of New Zealands South Island, yet there was still some snow clinging to the top peaks of the mountain range to the west. The surrounding vegetation was knee-high alpine tussock grassland, which permitted me unlimited visibility in all directions...and also made me highly visible to anyone else.
My reason for being here was the gold-bearing Shiel Burn stream that flowed peacefully just a few meters below.
This was extremely remote mountain country that is snow covered for half the year. Nevertheless, many miners had preceded me not only prospecting but also mining. The research of history books I had carried out informed me that the miners of the late 1800s could find no 'payable' gold any further upstream from where I was about to set up my camp. This did not discourage me as I knew from past experience that many of the waterways the original miners considered non-payable for hand mining, could be viable now by utilizing modern mining equipment such as the suction dredge I would be using the next day.
As I looked down into the crystal clear water I could easily see lines of near perfectly straight stone walls up to one meter high, which were the remains of wingdams. In this district during the late 1800s, and even as recently as the 1930s, wingdaming was commonly used to drain shallow streams to permit hand mining of the bedrock crevices. And these walls were the best constructed I had ever seen, with each stone so precisely placed one on the other, that they had withstood the severe flooding that occurs each year during the spring thaw.
Apart from what I knew of previous mining carried out here in the late 1800s and during the 1930s, I was also well aware that I was not the first modern-day miner to search this stream. I knew of at least four recreational fossickers getting heavy gold here some years earlier with their locally manufactured, lightweight dredges they called the NZ suitcase dredge.
Knowing this had again not discouraged me as I was certain any gold they had dredged could have only come from shallow, easily exposed crevices at the sides of the stream. The suitcase dredge they used were near useless because of extremely poor design and were so lacking in power that it would have been impossible for them to move any great amount of overburden to permit access of the crevices in the main body of the stream-bed. I confidently expected sufficient remaining gold to at least return me the expense of getting in here while I determined the viability of this stream for large-scale commercial dredging.
In addition, a few years earlier I had been shown eight ounces of chunky gold that a visiting miner from California had sniped from this stream within sight of where I was about to set up camp.
Prior to my arrival the only serious attempt to dredge this stream had occurred twelve months earlier when a very experienced Kiwi miner had his six-inch production dredge flown in. And when he'd made the decision to dredge this stream he'd thought little of it, other than to consider that there was gold waiting to be mined. After all, he was only doing exactly what he had been doing for many years previously to earn his living. This time however, his decision as to where and when to dredge was to set in motion a series of events that would eventually affect all Kiwi dredgers.
This miners first week of dredging had been conventional enough. He got on to gold immediately and each day was producing a constant half an ounce of fine flood gold from a section of stream-bed that had been hand mined a great many years earlier. It was less than he would normally require as his minimum daily production but he remained content. And if the weather stayed reasonably mild he intended to continue dredging until the first week of Winter, which was still months away.
The fateful day it all came to an abrupt end had started out better than those before when he uncovered a deep virgin crevice containing heavy gold. Then, as he was about to make a start on mining the crevice, he became aware of a disturbance above and on surfacing he saw a large helicopter hovering with its skids lightly resting on the crest of a nearby ridge.
Three men had already alighted and were heading toward him. One was easily recognized from a distance as a policeman in uniform and the other two men the miner identified as they got closer. Striding purposefully in the lead was the Resource Management Officer (RMO) for this district, followed by a Mines Inspector.
The miner and the RMO had met once previously a few months earlier in the nearby Arrow River when he had been challenged about dredging without the legally required permits and consents. A heated and at times very bitter confrontation had ensued with the miner forced to remove his dredge from the river and bluntly told he would need to complete all legal requirements before attempting to dredge again -- "requirements" that could take twelve months or more to conclude and cost thousands of dollars in government charges. And even then his application could be refused without reasonable explanation and with no right of refund for expenses incured.
Now it was about to happen all over again in the Shiel Burn! The difference this time was that they had found him in a stream where he had thought reasonably enough, he was so remote as to be unlocatable and curiously, this time they had a policeman with them. That they managed to find him in this particular stream at that particular time, was more than suspicious and the presence of a police officer to ride shotgun indicated possibly some feelings of paranoia by the bureaucrats.
The RMO was quick to speak first when he unwisely referred to this stream as being where the miner had chosen to "hide". A lengthy and bitter exchange between the two followed. The miner then boldly asked if they, like he, had permission from the landowner to be here on private property?
Once each protagonist tired of venting his anger, it was obvious any more talk was pointless. The miner had been caught red-handed and everyone present knew it. The RMO then wrote out an Enforcement Order that formally stated mining was to cease. The order also required the miner to respond in writting to the Regional Government Authorities explaining why he was again mining without any permits and consents. The bureaucrats then set about gaining 'evidence'. Photos were taken of the dredge and samples of the stream water were collected above and below the dredge for comparison tests that measured turbidity levels.
Next, with the miner and policeman passively looking on, a conversation began between the RMO and the Mines Inspector, that quickly became heated. At first, it seemed to the miner that they were discussing obscure points of law. Then after each eyed the other with their voices raised, the miner realized they were arguing over which of them had the greater legal power to permit them to be the one to officially charge the miner.
The miner could only look on bemused at the bizarre scene of these two bureaucrats standing kneedeep in the freezing waters of an extremely remote high country stream, arguing over who would have the 'pleasure' of charging him...and at this stage the policeman must have been wondering to himself if he was about to get his own feet wet separating the two bureaucrats.
Finally, to bring an end to the events of the day, the RMO turned to the miner and offered to fly him out, with his dredge and all equipment as they returned to the helicopters base airfield in Queenstown. The miner refused the offer. He did however give them his assurance that he would cease dredging, while forcefully stating that his dredge was to stay put. Later that day, after securing his dredge above flood level, he walked out to the road's end.
Upon returning to his home in Arrowtown, the miner met with other dredgers who had experienced similar recent confrontations with the RMO while dredging. They all knew something had to be done...but what?
After many had angrily expressed their thoughts about the perverse pleasure the RMO had exhibited when hunting down miners, they began to seriously consider their options. After much discussion it appeared their only choices were to either attempt to conform to the regulations or to lobby the government to have new regulations introduced. That, or simply ignore any regulations and operate as privateers.
Newspaper clippings from that time.
It had been the introduction of new environmental laws (The Resource Management Act) in 1991 that had been the motivation for the authorities to seek out "illegally" operating dredgers. Where it related to mining, this new legislation had transferred the control and management of the environmental aspects of mining from Mines Inspectors to Regional (local) Government. In effect, these smallest of the small-scale miners of New Zealand had virtually overnight gone from being mostly ignored by a government that had regarded them as only hobbyists who didn't rate serious consideration, to being enthusiatically sought out to be informed that they must now strictly comply with the regulations.
The regional authorities had however failed to realize that the regulations they were insisting be complied with were unworkable for the majority of dredgers who were recreational and nomadic. And the regulations were also much too complicated and expensive to comply with, even for many professional dredgers and especially so when a dredger was only prospecting with his dredge or when dredging a small deposit that would be worked out in a week or two.
The Regional Aurhorities continued with their heavy handed approach by then deciding -- during a closed-door council meeting -- to charge the professional miner with unauthorised mining of the Shiel Burn. This development only further inflamed feelings among the miners and in response a meeting was hastily arranged to discuss what was to be done.
And it proved to be a most useful meeting that was addressed by a heavyweight politician from the Central Government (a Cabinet Minister) who expressed his support for the miners. Boosted by his support the miners were no longer apprehensive about how to proceed. They wanted nothing less than a change to the laws!
Following newspaper publicity of the charges pending against the miner and two court appearences when no conclusion was reached, and representations on the miners behalf by the Cabinet Minister, the charges were withdrawn. This turn of events then permitted each side to adopt a calmer and more constructive approach.
The Regional Authorities next employed an independant consultant to examine the issue of suction dredge mining in detail and produce a report that could be considered.
In compling the report the consultant met with the miners and listened to their viewpoint along with considering the views of other groups with an interest in the issue, such as local environmental groups, anglers associations and various government departments.
At the same time, the dredgers increased their lobbying efforts by producing submissions, compiling their own report, holding a field day to demonstrate a recreational and production dredge operating, writting letters to newspapers, contributing to newspaper articals on the issue, contacting miners associations in other countries to learn of the latest environmental information, and so on. The miners also held numerous meetings among themselves as the matter progressed over a number of years.
My own arrival on the Shiel Burn that February morning was without any permits or consents permitting mining, so I guess I was also mining "illegally". However by that time I was confident the Regional Authorities had tired of searching the high country for dredgers...AND I was feeling lucky. The previous summer I had been one of the few dredgers who had not had a confrontation with the RMO.
The closest he came to ambushing me was when, by chance, I'd had my dredge flown out of the Arrow River headwaters one day before his search of that river by helicopter.
I enjoyed an uneventful six weeks dredging the Shiel Burn and the only people I saw all the time I was there were two friendly hunters who called at my camp while hiking to even higher peaks intent on baging a trophy chamois. And only one helicopter came anywhere nearby when a noisy turbojet mischievously flew directly overhead waking me early one morning. I was later to learn that it carried a Kiwi miner, who was on his way further into the headwaters of the Shiel Burn for a few days of prospecting with a metal detector.
The gold I dredged from the Shiel Burn could only be said to be reasonable. After extensive sampling, this stream proved unsuitable for my requirements as a commercial proposition where I could establish a claim (Mining Permit) on which I could employ a team of miners to operate Production Dredges. My best day was when I found and got to finish dredging the deep virgin crevice the previous professional dredger had been forced to leave under such unfortunate circumstances twelve months earlier. All the gold from this crevice comprised heavy pieces and it was one of my most memorable dredging days ever.
Since the mid 1990s when these events took place, and following a lengthy and involved review of the suction dredging regulations, much has changed for the gold dredgers of New Zealand.
It is now more practical for professional dredgers to apply for claims, although the government charges and compliance costs remain unreasonably high. And to provide for the recreational dredgers, the Crown Minerals Division of The Ministry of Economic Development are in the process of introducing a new system for recreational dredging that will have reduced government charges and special conditions applicable.
Roads End, Branches Station upper Shotover river.
____________________________________
This artical was first published in 'Australian Gold Gem and Treasure' magazine, Vol 15, No 1. (2000 Yearbook) and is reproduced with permission of Express Publications (copyright, all rights reserved).
Regards,
Rob (RKC)