Millennium: New Zealand a New Beginning

Number by catalogue:  Michel: 1661   Yvert: 1598   Scott: 1494  

Perforation type: 14 ¼x14 ¼

Subject:

1 dollar. A gold rush, 1800-1920.

Gold seekers on a background of a gold mining complex and a water wheel.

 

Additional:

*It was about 150 years ago when New Zealand's first gold nuggets were discovered - in a sifting pan on the banks of Coromandel's Kapanga Creek. The year was 1852, and at the time New Zealand was experiencing its first major influx of European settlers. 

It was the discovery of gold in the South Island that led to a series of gold rushes and the establishment of what soon became a major industry. The 1860s saw several true gold rushes to Central Otago, Marlborough and the West Coast. New Zealand's population doubled as immigrant prospectors came from China, Asia, Great Britain and Australia. Recorded gold production in 1866 reached 735,000 ounces (over 22 tonnes), a level that has not been exceeded since then.

The early miners used primitive equipment, gold pans and sluice boxes with the gold-bearing gravel being shoveled by hand. Hydraulic methods using high-pressure water were developed to work elevated terrace deposits, and water races were built over long distances, often through rough terrain, to convey water to the mine sites. As the more accessible, near-surface deposits were worked, attention turned to the large gravel deposits along the main rivers, particularly the Clutha River in Otago.

After numerous unsuccessful attempts, the first steam powered dredges started work on the Clutha River in 1881. The world's first commercially successful gold dredge was the Dunedin, which continued to operate in the Clutha River until 1901 by which time it had recovered 17,000 ounces (528 kg) of gold. 

Hard rock gold mining took longer to get established, requiring capital and expertise beyond the capacity of the alluvial miners. Gold production from quartz vein deposits commenced in the early 1860s with rock crushing batteries being set up to crush the gold-bearing rocks to allow the gold to be recovered. 

The success a new process of the cyanide process using cyanide solution to recover gold led to a major expansion of the Martha mine, which by 1903 was the largest gold mine in New Zealand. When the Martha mine eventually closed in 1952 it had produced about 5 million ounces of gold from nearly 11 million tonnes of ore which was mined almost exclusively by underground methods. 

Throughout most of the 20th century production declined due mainly to the falling real price of gold. Rising gold prices from the mid-1970s led to a surge of investment in gold exploration and production after more than 50 years of decline. At its peak in the mid-1980s about 20 exploration companies were active and a string of discoveries were made. Gold production increased from less than 10,000 ounces in 1983 to 390,000 ounces in 1995 - an output last achieved 80 years ago.

New Zealand's officially recorded production of gold up to December 1995 was 958 t, but there was probably a large additional quantity undeclared, particularly during the early gold rushes.

 

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This information has been taken from the site of New Zealand Mint