New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

am i right in saying, to run say a 3inch dredge with a 5hp on a certain piece of water with no permits in place ,i have to get a mining permit, not a prospecting or exploration permit but a mining permit.

i think i was told by a few people if the hp was under a certain level it was classed as fossicking and not mining?

love to here from some of you experienced dredgers/miners.

cheers
starflash

As NZGOLD rightly points out – unfortunately the current legislation doesn’t distinguish between different scales of activity. In theory anyone wishing to operate a small suction dredge for gold recovery would need to obtain a mining permit from Crown Minerals at the cost of mere thousands not including ancillary costs such as survey accurate boundary definition and consultation with iwi! The aforementioned requirements also apply to metal detecting and the even the humble sluice box and gold pan when used outside of a designated fossicking area!

But despair not, for salvation may soon be at hand in the form of proposed amendments to the Crown Minerals Act, which would provide for small scale activity without the need to obtain a mining permit. However with that said there are other legal requirements to consider, including landowner (be it private/commercial, DOC, or other govt dept) and resource consent. Potentially fairly straightforward in the case of private land, but apt to be rather difficult for DOC land.

As an aside I note a press release on the Crown Minerals website that refers to combining several reviews currently underway into a single larger one that will now be released for public consultation in April 2011. Perhaps by this time next year…

On the subject of resource consents – some district and regional plans for gold bearing areas already allow the use of suction dredges and like equipment as a permitted activity. In other words the scale and impacts are not considered to be sufficient enough to require a consent. In fact having done some research the regional plans for most gold bearing areas in the South Island include at least some provision for suction dredging.

If the proposed changes to the Crown Minerals Act are adopted then the only real hurdle in future could be obtaining land owner consents. And even in the case of DOC it’s not an unsurmountable obstacle.

ODC = Otago?

If so have a look at sections 13.5.1.6 and 13.5.1.7 of the Otago Regional Plan for further info.

In most regions you can generally look within the lakes and rivers section of their regional plan to check whether they allow section dredging as a permitted activity or not. The Nelson Marlborough region is a bit of an exception however, in that they don't have a separate regional council. Instead each local authority functions as a unitary authority undertaking both the role of local and regional council within their area. In which case check the relevant council website to confirm.

Cheers,
KM

yeh i did mean otago orc, thanks great leads guys.. for someone like myself who treats it as a hobby and a great day out in the wilderness this reform would be great.

i wonder however if the local farmers are then able to dredge the streams that cross their property at no cost, would they then allow others on their land to do the same?.

thanks again for your info and explanations

Actually someone asked me fairly recently about ownership of lakes and waterways. What follows might be useful when seeking landowner consent for your favourite fossicking spot.

Firstly while the term waterway suggests water what we're actually talking about here is land – more specifically the bed and banks of the waterway.

In this country ownership of waterways is essentially based on several precepts of english common law. One of which provides for the bed and banks of sections of waterways flowing through private land to be owned by that landowner. Provided of course such land abuts the waterway and is not interrupted by a legal road or other public land!

Similarly if a waterway forms the boundary between two properties then each riparian owner is presumed to also own the bed ad medium filum aquae or “to the centre thread of the water”.

One exception to both rules is the tidal or “navigable” reaches of rivers, which are vested in the crown.

Also; it’s important to understand that ownership of a waterway doesn’t automatically provide for the use of resources such as water and minerals that may be present. Utilisation is where the Resource Management Act and the provisions of your regional plan come into play.