Nevis Valley, Central Otago District, Otago Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Nevis Valley	Valley
Central Otago District	District
Otago Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

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Gold, coal and shale oil.

More information is needed on the origins of the uncommon species anapaite, listed against Nevis Valley.

The Nevis Valley is an approximately 50 kilometre long river, trending north-south, its confluence with the Kawarau River, some 15 kilometres west of Cromwell, in the Kawarau Gorge. The only access to the very lower reaches of the Nevis River is to a bungy jumping location.

Access to the rest of the valley is 30 kilometres upstream on a road from Cromwell, over Duffers Pass, the highest public road in New Zealand. The road then follows the river to Garston. The road is only open during summer,
gravel, and is 2 wheel drive through to what is called Lower Nevis, until Commissioners Creek. At this point, the road narrows, with several creek crossings, and shear drops, and is 4-wheel drive only. The gold workings in what is called Upper Nevis is in this section. In keeping with highland Central Otago areas, it is a bleak, largely treeless windswept area.

The first Warden's report stated: 'Nevis is so isolated and remote from every centre of population that it is just beginning to be discovered. This cold, sequestered, and ice bound region, hemmed in on all sides except where it opens to the Kawarau, will probably never attract a very large population (5 live in the valley today). It will be a storehouse of wealth to the hardy adventurers who are prepared to brave its inclement climate.'

An unusually large amount of information was found regarding gold workings for this relatively remote spot in New Zealand. In fact so much, we have divided the area into the Lower and Upper Nevis, as based on the sources there was two gold mining areas by this name, separated by a gorge.

The valley shows evidence of various types of gold mining from its discovery in 1862 to the present day. This started as ground sluicing by small mining parties, then hydraulic sluicing, gold dredging around the turn of the 20th century, government subsidy schemes in the 1930s, modern mining by L and M Mining late 1990's, and a number of small suction hose dredging in recent years. There has been almost continuous gold mining in some form across the entire period. Some families have been mining, or had an active connection with the valley across three generations.

There are also buildings relating to the gold mining period, ranging for complete historic cottages still used as holiday homes, and everything down to foundations marked with trees. Hamel (1994) provides a detailed description of the various buildings in the valley.

Coal was mined for domestic use, and later to power dredges. A number of coal pits have been found, including near the airstrip west of the Ben Nevis homestead, near the Nevis town site, and around Coal Creek.

Oil shale in the area was first identified in 1922, but was not investigated until 1961. The deposits are uneconomic. Two major faults called Nevis and Schoolhouse are 2 and 3 kilometres west of the river, with coal and oil shale between the faults and the river at Lower Nevis.

This section will cover the geology of the valley, largely species, in particular a description of the gold found. The sub-headings will describe the workings, mining history, and will mention briefly the buildings.

Gold found is in alluvial gravels along the Nevis River flats, and lower reaches of several streams running into the river. The gravels are red and white, overlain with quartz grit, with grey younger schist gravels above this. Pink and white clays have been exposed from sluicing the hill-sides. The gravel beds behind the Nevis town-site are a mix of sandstone, and schistose gravels, banks of clay, and beds of white quartz grit. No quartz lode has been found as a source, except one at the head of Victoria Gully in the Upper Nevis. Gold has been largely found on the western side of the valley including its tributaries, Nevis River itself, and immediate flats surrounding the river.

Gold at Nevis is dominantly an Au-Ag-Hg alloy, with less than 1% Au-Ag alloy gold. Hg in gold sampled ranged from 0.3-11%, while Ag is 8%. The alloys look the same in hand specimens.

Gold samples studied by Youngson et al. (2002) were all taken from the Upper Nevis area, where gold is only found on the western side of the valley. L and M Mining's activities in the area allowed access to gold specimens.

Clinozoisite is common in the schist belt in the Nevis valley with some containing relic cores of epidote. Coarse Ti poor magnetite, up to 4 mm, is found in the upper and middle Nevis bedrock, and abundant in metavolcanic horizons in greenschist facies schist in the lower Nevis valley near its confluence with the Kawarau River. Cinnabar is often associated with the gold. It is commonly found as small veins in the Nevis bedrock, coarse up to 1 cm in the Upper Nevis, and as sand in the Lower Nevis. Pyrite is abundant in the Nevis valley, while arsenopyrite is rare.




The Nevis Valley was first used as a trail route by Maori people. Early European settlers farmed the valley and in 1862 a Maori farmhand found some gold in the river. Years later, pioneering miners decided to investigate reports of this find and they soon struck it rich. Efforts to keep the find a secret failed - and so began the Nevis Valley gold rush.

Mineral List

Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities

10 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

Rock list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities