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Post by addergran on Oct 12, 2017 13:08:45 GMT 12
Gday Rob, I certainly agree with "pgm" you should write a book. With what you have learned, tried and experienced over the years, would make wonderful reading.. Just don't take too long as I'm at the end of highway 80 and highway 90 may be a dead end. Have always enjoyed your comments and advice and the pictures that you post are just plain awesome. I hope by the end of this year I will be able to post some pics of working on the Buller. Cheers
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Post by RKC on Oct 12, 2017 21:32:43 GMT 12
G'day addergran, I barely have enough time at present to keep this forum going, so ... no chance for a book at all. A lot of what has gone on with the informal mining sector in New Zealand, since the gold price rise in the late 1970s, would make interesting reading. But because of the "informal" nature of what occurred its probably not exactly prudent to write about it just yet. For example, I've heard a few of the stories of what went on in the Slate river with the Kiwi dredgers in the late 80s and early 90s, and it was an interesting time all right. But even though its been some time since those dredging days, the stories could probably not be written down by those involved. Some of this mag story ( golddredgingforum.proboards.com/thread/2012/danny-walker ) talks about the Slate although the rivers name is not mentioned in the article. I'm even a bit hesitant to actually mention the rivers name here ... and in 2017! When I first came to New Zealand in the late 80s to scope out the opportunities for dredging, the dredging in the Slate would have been at its height. I came over to New Zealand with two other Australian dredgers in August and we hired a camper-van to drive around visiting the goldfields to find out what we could. One of the first places we visited was Golden Bay where we then drove inland and came on a large alluvial gold trommel operation. One of the guys in our party spoke to the miner running the digger and when he mentioned to the digger operator that we were dredgers looking for dredging opportunities he told us there was a lot of dredging going on at that very time in the Slate river just a short distance away from his mine. Of course that interested us and that night we all debated if we should try and find them or continue on as planed, and head to Otago. I was always keen to head to Otago as soon as possible. If I remember correctly the others were inclined on investigating the Slate. But, by morning we had all decided to keep moving and get down to Otago. How things might have turned out differently if we had just walked into the Slate when we had the chance and seen what must have been a hive of dredging activity with helicopters coming and going, bringing fuel in. What mainly discouraged us was that we did not know the track to take to get in (I've since walked the track in the 1990s and its an easy few hours walk on a well formed track that comes out in the Slate at Moonlight Flat). I'm looking forward to reading about your upcoming dredging project in the Buller. The best flood gold I've ever dredged came from the Buller in the famous straight stretch of river below the Lime Works.. There was a group of us dredging the Buller then, but even though it was good gold, I could see no future and I left for Otago ... to the Arrow river. After I left a couple of the guys who stayed took a 5inch Keene triple sluice dredge up to Arikie Falls one day and got onto more good gold. They got 15 ounces in ... I think it was a week. One of the guys told me later that he was walking down to the dredge one sunny day from the car park and there was so much gold in the side box's it was like an explosion of yellow with the sun reflecting off gold that he could easily see from quiet a long way off. They would have continued there except someone dobbed them into the DoC ranger in Murch. She came down one day and gave them the choice to either leave or be prosecuted if they stayed. So ... they left. Regards, Rob (RKC)
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Post by RKC on Oct 12, 2017 21:55:37 GMT 12
G'day, OLD MAN RANGE. Regards, Rob (RKC)
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Post by RKC on Oct 12, 2017 22:00:27 GMT 12
G'day, OLD MAN RANGE Regards, Rob (RKC)
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Post by RKC on Oct 12, 2017 22:04:25 GMT 12
G'day, OLD MAN RANGE Regards, Rob (RKC)
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Post by RKC on Oct 13, 2017 9:17:35 GMT 12
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Post by RKC on Oct 13, 2017 9:21:49 GMT 12
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Post by RKC on Oct 14, 2017 9:39:14 GMT 12
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Post by RKC on Oct 14, 2017 9:54:16 GMT 12
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Post by addergran on Oct 14, 2017 11:31:23 GMT 12
Gday Rob, yes I take your point regards the Slate river. When I was at the Aorere and wracking my brains as to how I could recover the gold that I was seeing going into the suction (some I picked up with my fingers and shoved it in the cuff of my wetsuit sleeve) I was told by the Guy I bought my fuel from, that there was and Old Guy who was working on the Slate that maybe could help me. So on the weekend when my mates headed off to Takaka for a couple of days, I went in search of him and found him in a little one room shack. And yes he was an old man!! would say in his late eighties and over a cup of tea, the discussion of how to build a successful riffle box was talked over. He was doing pretty well with his little dredge and told me about a site further up the Slate called Brandy Point and said he would love to go there, but was stopped because it had steep walls that one needed a rope ladder to get down to it. One day I met a guy who had a helicopter and I asked if he could fly me in and did so. Yes it had very steep walls and looked a formidable place if it rained back at the mountains causing a flood.. The point had been worked before by a team by hand using Seabee Gorman gear, filling buckets and hauling them out. In earlier years some miner tried free diving to recover the gold, but it was very deep and cold and they say that's how it got it's name. Didn't find any empty Brandy bottles though, but found it very interesting. I went to a little rapid and using a screw driver from the helicopter tool box lifted a sheet of slate and yes there was half a dozen flakes lying in the water. Was thinking of a claim at that time, but stopped the rush of blood to the head with remembering I had an unsolved problem back at my own claim. I had a friend who managed the Collingwood Motor Camp that I went and spent a weekend with, this was a few years after I had left the Aorere and he told me that he had some gold miners staying in the camp. I went and had a chat and they had gear up in the Slate working. Unfortunately I never got to meet Danny Walker but had heard of him later. Rob, you certainly have been down all the roads of Gold mining, which has given you a very broad knowledge of the elusive dream of a pocket full of gold. I admire what you have achieved on this site, with information, pictures and cuttings. Many thanks my friend I tip my hat to you. Regards, adderman. PS; if you ever come by Nelson, would love a yarn.
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Post by RKC on Oct 14, 2017 21:22:05 GMT 12
G'day addergran, I was told that the deep pool on the Slate where DW dredged all that chunky gold from was called the Wire Pool. I got that second hand so, to be certain, it would need to be verified by a miner who was up there then! As you walk up the Slate on the riverbank, you eventually come to a spot where the sides are near vertical bedrock. What the dredgers did at this spot was to string some wire along the side so it could be traversed by holding on to the wire. The wire was still mostly in place when I went in there in the 90s but had rusted in places and come lose from the wall in parts. I managed to nevertheless get past by being very careful. So, I guess, that would be the famous Wire Pool. In historical accounts I have read of the time when the Slate was fist mined it was said that the alluvial terraces above the active river, were bonanza deposits of heavy gold. And were much richer that the actual workings were in the active river bed. So ... I would say that the vast majority of the gold dredged from the active riverbed in the 80s was gold that had originally come from the terrace works but was gold lost through the miners sluice box's because of general inefficiency of their equipment. I was also told that when the dredgers left the Slate they could still get an easy half ounce a day dredging there. If I get up to Nelson sometime soon I'll get in touch with you. Looking down, from the track into the Slate river, onto Moonlight Flat. Track into the Slate river. Slate river on a perfect summers day. Regards, Rob (RKC)
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Post by RKC on Oct 16, 2017 9:46:04 GMT 12
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Post by RKC on Oct 16, 2017 9:58:34 GMT 12
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Post by RKC on Oct 16, 2017 10:10:54 GMT 12
G'day, Tailrace. Regards, Rob (RKC)
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Post by RKC on Oct 17, 2017 9:33:26 GMT 12
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