Snowy River (Snowy River Dredge), Reefton, Buller District, West Coast Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Snowy River (Snowy River Dredge)	River
Reefton	Town
Buller District	District
West Coast Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

A.J. (Andy) Davy became interested in the possibilities of alluvial gold along the flats bordering the Snowy River. He had connections to Adelaide Australia, and in 1938 the Snowy River Gold Dredging Ltd was formed in the city with £70,000 capital.

The dredge began operations in 1941, and work continued along a 6 kilometre long and half a kilometre wide strip until 1957, covering around 300 hectares. During this time it processed around 13 million cubic tonnes of low grade alluvium (0.115 grams per cubic metre) yielding 67,500 ounces of gold. Dividends were paid each year of operation, amounting to a 404% return on the original capital invested.

For those interested in dredge operational facts, Hill states the following: "The dredge which cost £34,000 to build, weighed some 800 tonnes, was welded, and powered by electricity. It could dig to a depth of 10 metres below the water level, with a bucket capacity of a quarter of a cubic metre, designed to operate at 24 buckets per minute. The Snowy River dredge could handle nearly half a million cubic metres of material a year. The dredge worked 24 hours a day, 6 days a week, employing 14 men on two shifts, and an engineer, tractor driver, and men involved in clearing ground ahead of the dredge, and restoration work behind."

Environmental laws were changed in 1940, to compel companies to restore the land after mining. The area mined can still be determined by examining Google Earth, but at ground level, looks largely like normal dairy pasture. The Mindat map is located approximately mid-way along the 6 kilometre length former mined area.

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References