Crown Battery Ruins

107 Crown Hill Road, KARANGAHAKE

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DESCRIPTION: The Crown Goldmining Company which first worked this site was registered in 1883. By 1891 it was owned by the New Zealand Crown Mines Company. The mining was not fully developed until after 1889, when the first field trials in the world were carried out at this mine to prove the cyanide method of extracting gold from low quality quartz ores. In 1897 the New Zealand Government acquired the patent rights for the process. The small royalty charged for the use of the process meant that the government outlay was fully recovered by 1905. The process was soon employed widely on this and other goldfields throughout New Zealand and overseas. It achieved an extraction rate of up to 90% of the gold contained in the rock, so making economic the processing of low content ores. The Crown Company also processed ore from other nearby mines, and the site became the focus of a network of tramways and water-races. By 1896 the plant had expanded to 60 stampers but by 1908 difficulties, particularly surplus water, were encountered in the mining operation and by 1916 most of the workers had been laid off. In 1920 the battery was dismantled and in 1928 the company was finally wound up.

Crown Battery Ruins, Karangahake. CC BY-SA 2.0 Image courtesy of www.flickr.com | russellstreet | 30/01/2012 | russellstreet
Crown Battery Ruins, Karangahake | Martin Jones | 26/03/2002 | Heritage New Zealand
Crown Mine Battery, Karangahake [1920-1928] | Heritage New Zealand

Location

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List Entry Information

Overview

Detailed List Entry

Status

Listed

List Entry Status

Historic Place Category 1

Access

Able to Visit

List Number

4673

Date Entered

2nd February 1990

Date of Effect

2nd February 1990

City/District Council

Hauraki District

Region

Waikato Region

Legal description

Sec 112 Blk I Aroha SD (Pt Karangahake Scenic Reserve-NZ Gazette 1981, p.3006), South Auckland Land District

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