Black Sand Gold Plant For Sale

Fine Black-sand gold dredging equipment for sale.

SORRY SOLD

Reason for the sale:

The creator and owner Geoff Hill died in 2015 and partner is retiring as property to be sold by inheritance beneficiary. Geoff successfully made a living from the mining over 25 years and refined the gear for maximum efficiency. Engineering skills would be an advantage for maintenance and repair.

This complete and functional 2-person gold dredging set-up for fine-sand beaches consists of the following:

• Tables built on towable base with double wheels and sand tyres, / 36 mats (2 across / 3 down) of deep fiber-pile fleece each 120 x 60cm,
• Slurry Pump Warmen Centrifugal / PTO powered / with closed impeller
• Tractor ISEKI TD4410F: chassis no TL 106EF-00098 / 4 wheel drive, DIESEL fuel, water cooled, 4 cylinder
• Dredge-Plank purpose built 12 m tensioned aluminum plank on wheels to bridge 8-10 meter wide hole / breaks down into 2 separate halves / carries 9 suction heads
• Gear Trailer custom built of solid metal construction/ off road – unregistered
• Lay-flat and drag hose / over 400m of 2.5 inch pipe being a mix of heavy irrigator drag hose and light 2.5” blue Sunny lay-flat, mostly in 50m lengths with Cam-lock connectors
• Water Pumps: Kubota, Diesel, 3 cylinders, water-cooled, electric start
  Alternate pump: Davies Diesel, single cylinder in sturdy drag frame
• Quad bike: Honda 300FW PETROL with aluminum trailer (unregistered)

These are the major pieces of equipment – there are lots of bits and pieces and spares.

Mineral Permit for Nine Mile Beach Charleston is also available, but take note that erosion of the beach has created a gap between boundary and foreshore and another miner now has the inshore permit. However the Permit could be workable outside 4hours of the Neap high tide, but every tide would fill the hole in. Permit could be included with a full sale of all the gear. Permit Expires in May 2025: Resource Consent in 2026.

The property close to the beach is also up for sale. Consists of a small dwelling and large workshop-garage with 3 bays large enough to shelter Tables, Tractor, Quad on Trailer, and personal vehicle. (Doors are 3.5m high and 3.6m wide. Parking length is 5.7m – 7m) Plus a smaller shed to hold the rest.

SORRY SOLD

The Black Sand Gold Mining Operation

Tables / Slurry Pump / Tractor / 9 suction-head Plank.

The plank is moved forward by pulling on the near end and by a winding ratchet off an anchor at the tractor end. Move about 1 m / hr – enough 3” pipe to allow max 13 hour of pumping equal to dawn-dusk summer day.

Shows the hole next morning =near flat trough, 8-10 m wide and 1m deep (Resource Consent limitation). Depth controlled by knots on head ropes. White “boil sticks” stowed on plank overnight – water under pressure churns sand around heads.

Quad bike and rear of Tables =36 (120x60cm) fleece mats. Mats are secured by Velcro and are vacuumed every 2 hours (+/- 30 mins) . The vacuum is built into the Tables and powered from the slurry pump.

Gear Trailer loaded showing plank in 2 parts. Our mode of operation was to first pull the trailer onto beach, join the plank up, and then I unloaded while Geoff got the Tables, by which time he could take the trailer back empty and collect the slurry pump.

Slurry Pump showing the 3:1 intake (from the suction heads) and the 4” output to the Tables. While operating, the Concentrate barrels are rotated. Heavy sands are flushed from 2 barrels then refilled during the 2-hour shift – need a minimum of 4 hours rotation for max recovery of gold by mercury. Can accumulate over the season.

Kubota Diesel 3 cylinder Pump used to pump water from pond or creek for >400m of 2.5” lay-flat and irrigator drag hose (50m lengths with Camlock connectors)

Alternative Davies I cylinder pump can be manhandled up/down 10m slope to pump > 200m from pool.

The Full Gold Claim Story

To explain the situation with the Permit:

The permit is classified as Tier 2 Hobby claim with light machinery and hand tools. Geoff maximized that definition in the equipment. Definitely a level up from Recreational. The Permit can only be worked late winter, spring and early summer on the Neap tides and calm seas. We would be happy to get 300 hours of run time (not including set-up, and 2-hourly vacuuming of the mats). We would expect an average of 10 hours run-time to the Troy ounce.

The boundaries of the permit would have to be defined from the NZ Petroleum & Minerals map.

When Geoff started he had a dynamic foreshore boundary that moved in with the Mean-High-Tide. This policy was dropped with Government and Department change but Geoff was unaware of this and so did not realize that nzP&Ms had set his inshore boundary as static as of 2005, nor did they point this out when he renewed in 2015 (he died before the renewal came through). I only became aware of it when I saw that a new permit had been granted over all of the legal road including the foreshore.

I endeavored to arrange to work the foreshore on a tribute to the new miner (who has a Recreational License) and paid for the Resource Consent to be extended to his permit. Unhappily my co-worker had an argument with him and the deal fell through. Erosion has left my inshore boundary many meters out from the current dune-face.
I am not confident that the heavy machinery would be that usable so far out from the dune face – it would be very vulnerable to storm surge, everything would have to be taken off the beach between high tides, and every high tide would fill the hole back in; meaning a complete restart. I do not have the engineering skills to make repairs.

The permit could be utilized with a small table and shovel, but I would have to make a table from scratch for that and I am not interested. I doubt that a digger would ever be allowed on this very popular beach even though one is used on the other side of the Totara River. However, I would be happy to include the permit in the sale of the gear, or sell it separately.

The gear could be used on some other beaches so long as there is suitable access, a pump-able water source, fine enough sands that seepage is less than water delivery and the water level over the heads can be maintained. I can provide information by photo presentation in the running of the equipment, or hands-on instruction by negotiation. (I have worked 9 annual seasons on it and managed to train 2 co-workers after Geoff died. The basics are not that hard – but working it efficiently is tricky)

My hope is that I can sell for enough to afford a trip to the Antarctic as that was a dream Geoff and I shared – he got there, I didn’t.  (Now it would have to be a cruise not a working adventure!) This would be a finer way to remember him than the mess he unwittingly left behind.

SORRY SOLD

GEOFF’S FINE BLACK-SAND BEACH GOLD MINING PLANT