Hi All, as you may be aware I presented my petition to Hon Shane Jones last week and he has subsequently submitted it to Parliament house Petitions committee which is great news!.
The Petitions committee have asked me to make a written submission which is a written document of “what do you exactly want!” .. obviously we want new Public Fossicking Areas but now in more detail so I’d like more input from the prospecting community (that’s you!).
So could you please answer these questions in the comments!..
1/ Do you want Public Gold Fossicking areas in the North Island and where?
2/Do you want additional Public Gold Fossicking areas in the South Island and where?
3/Do you think we should update the existing rules and regulations in Public gold fossicking areas and what changes would you like?
4/Do you think prospectors should be allowed access to other general unclaimed areas(miners rights) under strict conditions? What areas? .. What conditions?
5/What other changes would you like to see?
I’m going to write this submission next week so any feedback would be great!
I reckon having an NZ equivalent to Australia’s miners right would be awesome… it would open up so much ground and also prevent people who go gold detecting being criminals the way the current regs are written.
2. public area in kyeburn/danseys pass would be good if/when one becomes available.
4. make unclaimed areas be accessible as frank said and they have the same restrictions as public fossicking area with instant fines for people caught breaking the rules. that should apply to public areas as well.
this is where you cook your goose, ask too much and end up getting nothing.
still think its a waste of time and theyre sending you on a fools errand but fwiw stick to the original intent and go with a couple of NI fossick sites and 1 or 2 new ones in the south.
if youre complete greedy morons youll ask to go anywhere unclaimed. you know damn well it will get abused to hell and its just human nature to push boundarie and youll just end up getting nationwide bans or severe restrictions like aussie.
good luck, my money is still on absolutely nothing coming from this.
1/
Yes, Lower west wellington area would be a good start.
2/
Yes, North of Waikari
3/
No, though more effort could be made to clearly mark boundary lines.
4/
Having a miners rights for general unclaimed areas would be great.
X Distance from a claimed area’s boundary
No gas powered tools (possibly use of battery powered tools)
Some form of online induction/quiz to obtain the right
Fines for people without the miners right, or those misusing with a loss of right
Unsure how this would go as enforcement would be so difficult, though same could be said for fresh water fishing.
I agree with fossickers locals and others “going for gold” I think that’s an expression
Without consideration to the environment..
I think if we added in it could be better to have designated areas easier to look up on line ie classified with your proposal.
This would educate those that follow d.o.c. or private claim and landowners who’d like to offer a new limited public fossicking area.
Yes more or longer channels of the current gold fossicking areas at lyell valley , moonlight creek, ross perhaps reefton area towards the railway line and bigger river.
I know the local pub at Ross there was adding or upgrading their accomodations cabins and presumably would welcome more persons to that town.
More funding for Doc or ranger -iwi to patrol fine those that are bringing suction dredges landrovers with tow ropes to lift boulders eg to lyell and the reefton fossicking area .
Yes to the North Island areas ,around coromandel.
Murchison river extend that area in a defined space off the main highway..
Or other north island ones like another person said on here… Wellington I believe.
Independent claim owners that are offering to give a permit as an add on clause would now be included in this.
1/ Yes, don’t know where but at least two in the NI would be a good start
2/ Yes if they can be made in areas where there are none nearby already
3/No, but harsher penalties for ignoring the rules and using motorised equipment, or gravity dredging etc.
4/Maybe but it needs to be well thought out. It would be good if officials are able to do a preliminary investigation of the idea
5/Much higher annual fees for giant PPs to deter land banking. Large portions of Otago are blanketed in 10,000ha+ prospecting permits which make the waterways unavailable to be worked by alluvial miners.
I am likely to be saying things others have said already but,
More areas in the South would be great, would love to see stuff closer to Dunedin, would be great to get more friends outdoors and active and know plenty of families that would love to do day trips if things were close enough. The limited space at Gabrielle’s gully is close but it has been turned over and ravaged over the years sadly, something near that area would be great.
Possibly mentioned a bunch of my thoughts to you already, but clarification on the current system and continuity that also aligns with the reality of the equipment available rather than outdated and arbitrary e.g. sluice sizes (could be set to the largest size used at any public claim, no reason to have smaller ones at all). Further clarification on more modern solar setups for portable battery operations (battery water pump and solar pannel for a high banker pump etc..) Along side that point, id say gravity fed systems for people getting creative, opening up access to new tools that mostly decrease the mechanical labour (and potential pain for those who are older and want to get outdoors) while still being reasonable and responsible in that the changes do not open doors to those who would abuse them.
Ultimately I think that an outcome of increasing access would lead to a need to increase policing of the areas to monitor people, other than trying to automate the process, its the only way they could manage the area increase and keep out those who are less concerned about following the rules. Just putting that out there for further consideration by others too.
The idea of some “miners rights”, with access to unclaimed areas would be amazing! especially if there were conditions on that, for example, recording and reporting findings, which could help form geological data that then could be utilised for more accurate mapping. That could be very hand for people who do decide to buy a claim and have some more up to date information on potential locations (just a thought, can see the down sides to that idea too).
Just throwing some ideas out there, could go on for a while but only so much people have the energy to read eh lol
Hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to the warmer weather… and rain that will hopefully wash down some more of the yellow stuff.
With a long enough hose one could make a very effective gravity dredge and absolutely pillage some of the steeper fossicking areas. But that’s not the idea of a fossicking area, and that’s why the rule has always been “non motorised hand tools”
If you get rid of the “hand tools” part of the rule, then there is no way to limit scale. The old boys’ hydraulic elevators and sluicing monitors were not motorized, just gravity powered, and they moved mountains.
“The limited space at Gabrielle’s gully is close but it has been turned over and ravaged over the years sadly, something near that area would be great.”
its a fossicking area, you guys want somewhere to fossick for a few specks of yellow yet act like its gotta be good enough to go get a half oz on a weekend.
A big thank you to everyone for their feedback (yes even negative Nancy “gogold”) all have valid points to consider with 10 replies on here and around 70 through FB .. many opinions and angles I hadn’t thought of so cheers for your feedback .. and keep em coming!
