How New Zealand Miners Extracted Gold: Methods from Alluvial to Hard Rock

1. Alluvial Mining

Panning, sluicing, cradling in riverbeds/terraces – simple tools, no deep digging.

2. Dredging

Floating dredges scooped underwater sediments; screens/sluices separated gold.

3. Hydraulic Mining

High-pressure water jets washed hillsides into sluices; effective but environmentally damaging.

4. Deep Lead Mining

Shafts/tunnels to buried ancient river channels; required engineering, ventilation.

5. Hard Rock (Quartz) Mining

Drilling, blasting, tunneling to extract gold-bearing quartz; ore crushed at stamp mills.

6. Panning

Basic swirling of stream sediment in a pan; used by individuals and for prospecting.

Method choice depended on deposit type, location, capital, and era.