Corromandel/Thames Gold

I think i prefer JW’s more eloquent explanation, .GT. I hope you’re not the boy who put his finger in the dyke. Naughty boy.
On a more serious note, I assume that a dyke or dike could also be a quartz vein?

Hopefully you are referring to the wee Dutch fellow who saw the leak in the dyke and put his finger in and thus saved the lowlands of Holland from turning back into one huge duck pond and not to some grubby wee boy who put his finger into - - - a dyke!
JW’s explanation was just too technical for my simple mind as I am still trying to work out what dykes have got to do with dykes…if that makes sense.
Hmm it doesnt pay me to write when I have had too much gin BUT I needed it after a committee meeting at the RSA…at least tonights particular meeting.

Hi mate. Beautiful place. Walk up the track to the old battery. You will see the mass of bedrock in the stream. Jump down in there and choose a big rock to work around and under.
Good luck. Great weather for it.
Cheers :call_me_hand:

A good eye will find traces of gold and silver in the old tailings piles

Yes, great day for a splash in a creek. Thanks for the tip.:sunglasses: JR

1 Like


My first picker our of the Coro/Waikato river, woo hoo

3 Likes

Waikato River??

JW :cowboy_hat_face:

No the stream was between Thames and Waihi, if I give the name of the stream , we will have to bring in crowd control. Tee Hee !

Think you will find there is gold in all the streams between Thames & Waihi. I think you will be pretty safe with crowd control not being needed. Don’t quit your day job. :wink:

JW :cowboy_hat_face:

2 Likes

Missed out on Doon’s sluice. Anyone in Thames area got one I can give a whirl or buy?
Advice on what works well and easy in small creeks and fine gold: miners moss, rubber mat, dream mat or grass mat.
Ideal size?
Is this one too small?

Hi, Im not suggesting any particular spot. But I have done a lot of research on where best to find alluvial deposits in the Coromandal/Hauraki area. As the land is young and hasnt erroded like much of the land has in the South so the gold is still locked up in reef, Id suggest you look at the geography and look for where the mountains have broken down and freed up the gold. Good starting point would be Coroglen rd west area I reckon. All the best.

Hey bro, I’m from Whitianga and just trying to get geared up to give panning or sluicing abit of a go. Thinking about getting up into some of the bedrock streams near Kuaotunu.

Been an enthusiastic rock hound and gold mine finder for a little while now but would love to have a crash course on doing abit of gold panning for myself.

Any tips yah might be able to fire my way?

Best bit of advise I can give you is do a bit of research as to where alluvial gold was found back in the day. It isn’t hard to find out these places. Then just get out there & test pan or sluicebox. 2nd bit of advise, keep a very low profile & don’t advertise the fact you are looking for gold. It is the Coromandel, it is full of frog arse licking people & tree huggers & you should not be doing what you want to be doing there. Be stealth. The fun police are every where.

JW :cowboy_hat_face:

7 Likes

I have a 7 year old who has really gotten into gold mining along with collecting every gem and cool rock she finds, we brought her some pay dirt bags for her birthday to do at home but its not “real gold mining”. we can’t get down south and we would deal with the cost and make the effort if we knew she was willing to do the hard work but at well over 1k in gas, food and ferry fees its not feasible for us.

I want to take her out for a day in the next school holidays which are two weeks from now, we have family in waihi and corromandel isn’t too far away from us, is there anyone that could offer a safe-ish place to go have a bit of fun? or some info to get me on the right track? have had a look at Broken Hills Campground on maps after reading other posts on here and I am unsure on how safe it would be with all of the roads along the river.

Not in it for the gold, Just the smile on her face if we are lucky enough to find a spec and a great day being outdoors with the kids

Broken Hills Camp is a good place to go. Has some cool walks through old gold mining tunnels, & also to some old kauri dams. Some very nice Jasper & “opalised” Jasper can be found in the river. More so up the fourth branch of the Tairua River which you can walk to up stream on an old water race/track from the camp ground. I am sure I never got it all. On a side note, there is fine gold in the Tairua River, there is even a little side creek trickle called Gold Stream. It actually cuts down beside an exposed quartz reef on one side. The same run of quartz reef they were mining back in the day. Now I am picking it wasn’t called that for nothing. Only trouble is, it isn’t the one marked on the maps as Gold Stream. Just to throw a curve ball.

Either way, be a cool place to stay a weekend, or week during the school holidays & have a good look around exploring. There are even trout if you want to cast a spinner. One of my sons caught a trout while I was hunting for gold, opps, I mean Jasper.:wink: He caught it on his first cast on a new rod I had got for him one xmas. Thats going back a few years now.

You will be surprised how far Coromandel, township, is from Waihi when you drive there & back in a day.

JW :cowboy_hat_face:

we are just under 2 hours away from broken hills campsite so doable for a there and back day trip for us. thanks a bunch for sharing your adventures! off to do some more research and hopefully by the start of next month we will have some cool new rocks to go with her collection :grin:

Why don’t you just camp in there & spend a few days?

JW :cowboy_hat_face:

we have a 1 year old that will be staying at home with dad, plan is to leave home early and get back late, could do one night away but easier to do a day trip than set the tent up this time, if it goes well the whole family will go for a few days next trip. In saying that I’ll be packing all of our camping gear just in case it doesn’t go to plan