Would you like more public gold fossicking areas? After talking to a large number of prospectors this summer I have decided to start a petition to the house of representatives (Govt) to ask the the house to consider creating additional public gold fossicking areas in New Zealand. It’s currently still in draft form but should be completed by next week ready for signing. It will be a hybrid petition so can be signed by either following the link to the House of Parliament website or signed on the official hard copy form. I’m hoping for at least 5000 signatures but 10k to 15k+ signatures would carry more weigh and hopefully get the attention of MP’s from the minor parties to jump on the band wagon just before the election. Closing date is 12th August so this gives us 3 months to get as many signatures as possible. You can help by not only signing it yourself but also sending the link to as many fellow NZ prospectors as you can. You can also download the official petition sign in form, print it out and collect as many written signatures as you can, maybe some of us can head down to your nearest public fossicking area and collect signatures onsite. All paper forms will need to be sent to my postal address. I have consulted a fair few people in the gold prospecting community, industry, consultants and regulators on this and I think it’s the best way forward. If your interested in helping push this petition please feel free to email me at malsgoldadventures@gmail.com as I would really appreciate your help. This petition if successful or not will send a clear message to the govt that the gold prospecting community of NZ wants this to happen, Govt would then hopefully send directive to MBIE and give NZP&M a clear mandate to start this process. NZP&M have done some preliminary work on this already. Yes this may take years but fundamentally this is about the right of recreational gold prospectors in NZ to prospect for gold without the need for a permit for now and generations to come(national anthem playing in the background ..lol!) Hopefully we’ll get to help decide where these new public fossicking areas would be located. I’m sure many of us have some good suggestions. We may need to introduce a code of ethics similar to the DOC one to address environmental concerns to get it across the line. I’ll keep you all updated of progress in the coming days/weeks. cheers Mal Blown (Mal’s Gold Adventures!)
Good on you Mal. I have to wonder if they would even entertain the idea. Seems DOC have their hands full dealing with way wood “fossickers” already digging into banks & undermining roads. or helping flooded rivers do more of the work. Slab Hut springs to mind. The Govt is unlikely to want to create more work & spend more money. They are more interested in cutting services to the public & taking away our rights, or what used to be our rights, to save money. Mean while the country is still going down the toilet.
JW 
I hear ya John .. but this could be a good way to de intensify the spread of fossickers if there where more places to go and have less claim jumping also . I have some experienced advisers that will help in preparing the submission to a select committee when the time comes.. need heaps of signatures so this thing genuinely looks like it comes from the whole of the gold prospecting community. ..
Worth a punt, but was wondering the same thing with all the recent bad press 
I’m a bit time poor at the moment, but shout out if I can be of assistance.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You have to dip your toe in the water.
On another note, concerning the Dunedin City Councils by law changes concerning public access to the Deep Stream water catchment area. I got an email yesterday that was sent out to people who put forward a submission. All 18 of them. WTF, obviously not many people cared. So our rights get eroded even more. Less ground accessible to the public for recreation. Just a continued slide down the toilet.
It wouldn’t allow me to up load a link to the documentation so I took a screen shot to put up here.
Note, nothing at all about access for gold mining. They just turn there back on this discussion & don’t even engage or mention it. Silence & denial.
i will definately be signing mal. certainly no harm doing it. sitting on our arses wont change anything.
Thanks .. hopefully Petition will be ready for signing next week.
Its a bit like fishing in that avid prospectors will also spend money on their hobby. Fuel camping gears, fossicking gears, food joints along the way etc…. which all proactively helps the economy
This is awesome Mal, I will send you an email for a link to the hardcopy Petition
From what I’ve seen on the coast fossick areas they could quadruple the length of each area, to no avail as them bits been done as much if not more than the sites, around Haupuri worst I’ve seen no claims no fossik areas and i could loose my truck in the suction dredge holes behind the big rocks. Or the American claim I allowed on owned for 25yrs by USA apart from test holes back in day Americans never been on it raped to bits holes like Goldsborough over whole river. Might as well go like aussie if it’s not a gold mine already claimed and you paid ya hobby miner fee ya free to go there using gear they’ve stipulated for that area, cause at the mo in nz that’s what happens anyway,the govt just not getting the fee. Ole nz make heaps of ridiculous laws , then null and void the policeman part. Laws with no consequence they laws I like.