New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

LEGALLY, without a mining permit, you are confined to the areas set aside for public fossicking, or if you know someone with a permit/claim that will grant you access that is another possibility.

Arent the public fossicking areas pretty thrashed by now - what about all the old tailings from the old gold rushes - are those in public fossicking areas?
Does the queens chain rule apply to rivers at all for nuggett hunting as for fishing? Although this seems to be less and less the case these days..
Seems liek its hard enough just to find a nuggett - if there arent even decent areas to start hunting how do people ever find any??
thanks
John

As Digahole said legally you need to either have a claim, permission to fossick on a claim, or the public areas that have been set aside for fossicking. LEGALLY you can not hunt for gold on any land (private or public owned) unless it is one of the above. Notice how Legally is stressed......

But to find out where the claims are - go to Gavin's maps here: http://www.paydirt.co.nz/permit-map
To find out what is public land or not have a look here: http://www.walkingaccess.govt.nz/wams/disclaimer?redirect=http://wams.org.nz/wams_desktop/index.aspx

Forget the "Queens Chain" that has never been legal access in NZ for fishing or for any other activity (it was never officially signed off by the Crown). Instead check out the the WAMS map link above for public access.

this is confusing
public fossicking areas are very small and so are permitted areas for mining and prospecting
there are still huge areas that are not covered by these areas.
Are these all NO GO areas??
if public access is allowed and the area is not a fossicking area or permitted area does that mean metal detecting is not allowed?

thanks for the comments
John
for instance how come people are hunting at Danseys when it has no permits/no fossicking permission?

Its simple...Fossicking for gold is not allowed outside of fossicking areas unless u have a claim and detecting for gold is fossicking there are no other areas u can do this unless you can go on someone's claim....with there permission...if u want to go anywhere else that isn't claimed its at ur own risk some would say there isn't much risk at getting narked on but I think there to many people who watch short land street for my liking;)...if u wanna bitch about it go to ur local mp

Lammerlaw is write .if ur going to through caution to the wind make sure u have a good disguise I used to we're a sheep skin so that way if any1 saw me at the creek it just looks like a sheep drinking now days Iv put some extra condition on so use a cowhide but b warned don't use a dairy breed as those cows are not allowed in creeks but beef are so a good Murry grey or Hereford would do the trick u could glue there ear,s to ur head phones for extra effect ..

Geez thanks for pointing that out....never thought of that....hmmm you reckon the bull would be the biggest worry ....I think someone probing upto there elbows would be of concern... no matter how much lube they were wearing lol.
Still ether of those situations would have to be better than being caught by the greenys!

sounds crazy I no but how much did those fallers get fined for using that shitty little dredge on doc land above a fossicking area was it around 200+k !! ??

Edited by user Tuesday, 11 June 2013 9:18:26 PM(UTC)  | Reason: put some more thort into my post

The best way to disguise yourself would be cover yourself in mud and wear a loin cloth...people will think youre nuts and stay away from you!! Keith walked up the Luxmore hut barefoot and wearing really short shorts under his swandri( he looked naked except for the swandri) people walked around him really quickly with that startled look...absolutely hilarious. Caz

Lammerlaws on the money.If you have a place in mind to look for nuggets have a look on the permit map to see if its claimed,if it is you may be able to contact claim owners for permission to have a dig around.Same deal with unclaimed private land,get permission,but in my opinion you have the right to look anywhere else.Go for gold mate,this is a free country and you should be able to enjoy your new found hobby without any fear of prosecution.
If your wandering up a river or creek on doc land and someone asks what your doing ,ask them why they want to know.If they say that they work for doc and that you cant detect for gold tell them too piss off,if they start getting snarly tell them you are looking for lead sinkers.A doc ranger would have to be really wanky to even say that you cant detect and hopefully these type of rangers are few and far between.

Gold that is procured by the part-time prospector ,whether it be from waving a detector back and forth for hours on end or plunging down into ice cold water and sucking metres and metres of gravel through a home made dredge, is gold that will contribute to our economy.It maybe sold to pay a bit extra on a mortgage,buy a tv,get next weeks groceries,made into a ring for the wife,hell,maybe just hold on to it and pull it out after too many beers to show your mates.

cheers and happy hunting

from what I have seen/heard/read as far as gold is concerned, ANYWHERE but public fossicking areas are legally off limit. subject to negotiating with the permit holders.