Right Folks well after I had learnt everything from Val. Out I headed with only my D shovel to test various beaches in the Westport area. Obviously the first beach I tested was the one I lived at Tauranga Bay.Westport New Zealand. I owned a house overlooking it. Up and down that beach I went testing it. Even driving a two inch diameter pvc pipe deep into the sand to get samples from different levels. I had a steel cap I could screw onto the top of the pipe. And drove it in with a small sledge hammer. When I pulled the pipe out the core stayed in the pipe. and when I took the cap of the suction was released and I would lay the core out on the beach then test the various levels. I got even more inventive and made up a small venturi, that I fitted at the top of the pipe with a valve or two on. There were two small creeks that flowed out onto the beach, so I had water. And of course plenty of layflat hose. I could turn of one valve and the water was directed down the pipe, that way the PVC pipe would go to great depths, at around 12 feet I struck a rock bottom which was pretty uniform all the way down the beach. So I had found bottom. By then adjusting that valve, I could activate the venturi and suck sand up from 12 feet, squirting it into a bucket. Then test it. I had various pay levels right down to basement some of them quite rich, But many of the layers were barren. So obviously I had to design a system where I could take the lot, the good with the bad so to speak. My tests varied from no gold specs to up to around 150 to 200 per shovel load. Val reckoned I had a workable deposit.
So now it was time for me to build a Beach Table. My first one was built out of marine ply, much along the same design as a high banker. But almost identical to the type the Shetlanders used. This was one I had to shovel onto a screen, as the sand did contain some gravel, dead shells etc. The next mission was to find some sort of matting that wouild hold the fine gold. I wasn’t going to go the mercury/copper plate way. After testing many different materials I found the best for the ultra fine beach gold, was believe it or not was inside out sweat shirt fabric, polar fleece was its name. And boy did it capture and hold the gold. So that became my mat of choice.
Well I got it all built, bought a water pump and was off to the beach to test it with a friend. Yep it worked and it worked well. I had set it up in the richest part of the beach, I had found. .Now shoveling black sand I soon found is pretty hard work, even if you are young and fit. And shoveling many cubic yards a day is hard yakka. But I persevered, as if I wished to upgrade , well I needed to catch gold to sell to buy that gear. After a while I was able to buy a small Trash pump that I adapted to handle abrasive black sand. Using the same table, I made up a hand held suction head with a screen on it, not to small a screen or it would block, and not to large as the trash pump would ony handle a certain size of gravel. So I now had two pumps to run. One for the extra water and one to drive the Trash pump. But gold returns went up.
Pretty soon we were able to make quite a large excavation. But then found out we were always running out of water, as our supply was minimal. So I worked out we had to recirculate our water and conserve it. So the table was placed so that the water and sand flowed back into our hole at one end and we worked the other end. Well that worked to a degree, but the trouble was the water got deeper and deeper until our hole was filled. and we had to get out or drown lol. Put the thinking cal back on. We both owned wet suits, as at that time we were just starting to get into dredging. but that is another story.
So it was wet suits on, let the hole fill, then float in it, holding the hand held suction hose, which we had now attached to a rigid piece of PVC pipe, that way we could push it down onto the sand at the bottom. I must admit we did get some funny looks from people visiting the beach, floating around in a dirty water hole in the middle of the beach. Some who enquired what we up to I told, oh we are gathering deep sand clams, this is where they live, deep in the sand. Others I told we were excavating what we believe is the site of an ancient Spanish Galleon and when we found it, we would re-write the history of the discovery of New Zealand. Some folk are very gullible and actually beleived us. It was after all boring work, just floating there, with only ones head out of the water, for up to eight hours a day. There has to be a better way I thought. In those days I was pretty inventive, still am I guess.
So after I had proved the system worked, it was time to build Beach Box number 2. The MK 2 Model. Now like all gold miners you always want to go bigger and better. Hmmm more gold, more gold, more dosh. So I set to designing the MK2. It was gunna bet a two table set up, an upper and and lower table, fed by suction. Bought a welder, then learnt how to weld, not a craftsman there, but in the end I could lay a pretty good bead, well good enough to hold things together. The whole system was built using flat aluminum for the tables, and square galvanized section for the support frames. I had the local plumber do the boil boxes for me, as he had a large bender in his workshop. Finally after much work, heaps of welding, and hundreds of pop rivets it was done. All mounted on its own axle with pneumatic wheels. Yep it was a mobile monster. Time to buy another pump, this time a larger trash pump (8hp) as I was moving up to three inch suction. Bigger is better. Designed a bigger and better suction head. Now it was time we did away with the floating around in the hole method, it wasn’t going to work with everything larger. So off to the local lumber yard. I need a plank, a bloody great plank, the plank of all planks. And yep tucked away in the “Whatever are we going to do with this or who will ever buy this Dept” was just what I needed. This massive Oregon Pine plank of all planks. About 7 yards long, four inches thick, and about two foot wide. Just what I needed. Got it at a good price to, They were pleased to see it go, And guess what they had nine spares if I ever need another one.
So now we were able to start the hole then as it deepened lay the plank over it. And we now had our own bridge. The plank of all planks could support the two of us easily, cant beat that Oregon pine eh. And I only fell of it once and into the water filled hole. Well it all worked. Except for one thing. The angle of the tables meant the discharge end was quite close to the surface and our sand tailing soon mounted up. The ban of all gold miners. Luckily a mate of mine who was working a gold claim, had a large flat deck trailer, double axle, he didn’t need anymore. So bought that, hoisted the MK 2 up onto that, and the problem was solved.
I worked that beach for nigh on 15 years. Mainly on my days off, as I was in the NZ Police, and gave it heaps on my holiday time. It was a good little earner. But the overheads were high. Running three petrol pumps, maintenance etc. When my kids started getting older, I decided it was time to move to town. Mainly for their sake. There were only two full time occupied houses at the Bay, the rest were Holiday Homes. My kids were getting into sport,and friends so it was the fair thing to do. After moving to town,I kept up with the claim for about another two years. There was plenty of ground still left to work. But I now had a suction dredging claim up the Buller River, and boy was that a rich one. (Thats another story). It started getting all the attention. I parted with my claim at Tauranga Bay . The new owners copied my process but made theirs even bigger and better than mine. Mine was scrapped. But it had served me well. What more could I ask. .So that is the tale of my blacksand mining days, they were fun days, especially the weigh up. But the Buller river ones were even better.
Well I will go add a couple of pics I found. Sadly in those days there were no digital camera’s, and over the years any printed pics I had seem to have disappeared, much like my youth. In the pic of the MK 1 Beach box is me when I started all this. Well I am now coming up 72, ddoesn’t time fly. In the next and final episode I will cover the evolution of the great and mighty gold Cube.
Cheers Trev aka “Kiwigold”,