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.
Location
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