Grey River Gold Dredge Oct 2020

Gold miner Allan Birchfield shows us around the Grey River Gold Dredge. It’s a first for me Coasters and at 3500 tons and 6 stories high just stunning.

Since 1992 Birchfield Minerals operated the largest remaining alluvial bucket gold dredge in the world at Ngahere on the West Coast. It lay idle for five years until being recommissioned in 2009, working through to 2012. It was mothballed in 2012 due to falling gold prices.
The dredge was built by American company R.A. Hanson and started operation in 1989, but the company went into receivership eight months later. Birchfield Minerals purchased the dredge in August 1992
Director Allan Birchfield said with gold at close to $3000 an ounce in 2020 the dredge has become very viable once again in 2020.
Allans family has a long history of working in coal and gold mines and sawmills on the West Coast.
The 3500 tonne dredge was built pre-World War 2 and originally operated in Kaniere, but was moved to Ngahere where it's been operating since 1987.
It can dredge up to 800 cubic metres an hour and runs on electricity.
Birchfield has taken almost two tonnes of gold out of the river and estimates more than four tonnes are within the permit and consented area.
"We've taken two tonnes of gold out, and there's more left than what we've taken. We've done 250ha, but there's as much ground left to do as I've done already," he said.
It's a big a job for me to continue on, the project has another 10, 20 years to run .
Birchfield said the gold industry on the West Coast had a very viable future, if more land was opened up.
We haven't scratched the surface. Most of the rivers and creeks run gold if you can get access to them. Eighty-seven per cent of the land is controlled by the government and access is always an issue,
57 tonnes of gold had been extracted from the West Coast since 1870 and there was still plenty of hard rock gold left in the Reefton gold fields.
The 30-year-old dredge is at Ngahere, about 22km inland from Greymouth.

Видео Grey River Gold Dredge Oct 2020 канала The Coasters Club