Southland public site

16 public sites in the South Island none around Southland Riverton round hill area. I am talking to the DOC down here to see if we can work something out I am thinking somewhere around the streams that end on orepuki beach but does anyone have a good suggestion for the location of a public fossicking area in Southland. I’m probably just dreaming but I have a lot of time on my hands :slight_smile:

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Not a bad idea, problem is most the watercourses are already claimed by either small hobby claims or large landbased permits.

The other issue is as soon as someone suggests a creek, some chutney-ferret bangs a claim in. To illustrate, there was talk of Griffin Creek on here and some old treks up with a pan, the next week a claim was lodged. The walk up into the creek is tough, and im sure the claim holder had no idea of what they were up against, they simply read the story and lodged a permit…

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Crikey some prole (Chutney ferrets lol) have some serious $$ to play with. I feel I have to try. The area is shot full of claims but there are gaps. I have also wondered if someone would donate part of their claim to a public area.
Yes I am a dreamer

Hey mate, I think if a river / stream, doesn’t have a claim on it and you aren’t going to upset anyone you should be aloud to have a fossic. As the saying goes ( gold is where you find it )

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Yes you are so right - at the moment I am formulating a letter to the Prime Minister and Winston Peters regarding the re establishment of the Miners Right for say a cost of $5 per annum and I will be reminding them that I will, in all probability place the discussion on Social Media so that anyone will be able to see if Labour party is still the ordinary peoples party and New Zealand first indeede DOES put New Zealand and its people first. It will be some time before I do it as I am currently tied down but I have every intention of seeing it done.

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4 Years ago with my nephew at Orepuki, before the beach was claimed. Beautiful place and great fossicing :slight_smile:

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Orepuke was claimed for a reason though - too many people were getting stuck in on a regular basis.
If you have a chat to the locals that have the claim they might let you have a quick pan or sluice.

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I am heading out to Orepuke today. I have heard everything from i will be shot, raped and put in a umu not necessarily in that order. If i can talk to the claim owners i m going to suggest a koha donation for public panning system on a section of the claim. I doubt many people would pull 2$ of gold off the beach if they gave it a go.

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How do you avoid a tsunami of muppets tearing the country apart for $5 a head. It might be necessary to indoctrinate them in an afternoon course on mining etiquette.

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There was talk on the old paydirt forums about Orepuki.
There are a few other places around southland I have been down on the beach and got black sand that had gold.
Just nothing like what concentrates on the beach at Orepuki.
I wonder if the beach had a claim on it back in 1865 or if it was fear game, and how times have changed.

Well it can only be worked when the tide it out. The gold is fine.
Modern sluices make it more profitable, and they have platinum group metals in with the gold, so get a higher price.
It’s also far away from populated locations.
I imagine you’d have a stack of sluicers/panners out along the westcoast, if it wasn’t all claimed up.

I think the happy medium between a claimed area and a public area (at orepuki) would be a koha area $2 (39 milligrams) for a pan $5 (96 milligrams) for a sluice that would have to be defined later on but family fun for under $10 would be welcomed. I was there today but it was a screaming southerly so tomorrow might be better with the black sand uncovered by the wind.

It’s not the entire beach, there is only a small area.
There might have been a problem with too many non-locals causing errosion too, I dunno.

May I ask you if you are old enough to remember the Five shillings ‘Miners Right’ - I bet your not!
May I ask you if you are a highly qualified University text book academic - I would not be at all surprised. Textbook academics are usually mindless people with little vision who cannot think out of the square and the text book is the gospel. If you give one of these people two text books on the same subject with contradictory information they usually can’t handle it and go quite mad…that’s ‘experts’ for you

To enlighten you what you suggest is actually insane because when the gold price went from $35 to $300 per ounce there was hardly a ripple AND if what you say was even partially true then the designated fossicking areas would be craters in the ground.

The effect would NOT even be noticeable. I am guessing that you work for the crown!

That explains the tension then.

I am sensing some tension in your answer and think you may be operating from a memory of people you’ve talked to previously. The price is roughly 1800 an ounce at the moment and there is a lot of people in NZ who need some extra money. I think if there was more social media noise of the public gold fossicking areas they would be craters in the ground.
I am 42 yr old sickness beneficiary who only just bought a pan today :slight_smile:

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This is the claim. The gold concentrated on the beach and has been for hundreds of years well before 1865 when gold was discovered on the beach. It’s concentrated with the tide and wash that batter’s the coast and replenishing the concentration on the beach. Good old mother nature. And I have a full time job gold prospecting is a hobby of mine I can share with my family and it’s a hard hobby, but I persevere in the right avenue’s.

And people who need extra money get a job !

It’s not a get rich scheme, the gold is hard won in alot of the land. And I give credit to the guys / girls doin the hard yards for this as a job and a life.

Be like a fishing license :+1: ? and definitely would be rules etc no doubt lammerlaw

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