Blackball Area Gold Dredging (Grey River Dredge; Birchfield Dredge), Greymouth, Grey District, West Coast Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Blackball Area Gold Dredging (Grey River Dredge; Birchfield Dredge)	- not defined -
Greymouth	- not defined -
Grey District	District
West Coast Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

Sitting in a pond on the alluvial bearing flats by the Grey River outside Blackball, is Birchfield's World War Two era dredge. Said to be the last bucket ladder operational gold dredge in the southern hemisphere. Its been idle for several years, but as of 2017 when this was written was for sale. Its new mining licence had been hard fought, opposed by conservation groups, and government departments worried about fish stocks in the Grey River.

Dredging has not always been environmentally friendly in the past, although various areas have been rehabilitated back to dairy pasture, and you would be hard pressed to tell mining was once conducted on the land.

Birchfield is a local family owned mining business, their dredging lease at the confluence of the Grey River, with Ford and Blackball Creeks. It is known as the Grey River or Birchfield dredge, with Birchfield purchasing the dredge in 1992 from the Grey River Gold Mining Ltd. The dredge was operational from 1992 to 2004 across 220 hectares achieving around 55 000 ounces of gold. The site had several earlier dredging operations.

The first was the Ford Creek Dredging Company 1900-1902, ending due to buried timber, and the inability of the dredge to reach the bottom gravels.

The 1930's saw larger locally owned electric powered dredges of the Blackball and Argo companies. The Blackball company operated from 1938 to 1947 in Ford Creek achieving 15 390.8 ounces of gold. There was a 130% return in dividends to shareholders from the original 18 000 pounds capital invested. Argo worked the Blackball Creek from 1935 to 1942 achieving 489.8 kg of gold, with a 206% return to shareholders on the original capital invested.

There were also two sluicing dams called Montgomery and Aynesley, which sluiced the terrace facing the Grey River. At Ngahere, the Ngahere Gold Dredging Company dredged Goat Terrace starting 1940, with a large U.S. built dredge. Gold returns however were lower than expected, with the dredge breaking into old prospecting tunnels. Together with a prolonged strike by its workers, the operation ceased in 1950. After being idle for two years, the dredge was beached, and the company liquidated, having achieved 2363.53 kg of gold from the site.

The most recent mining is along the northern bank of the Grey River indicated by the map, while the dredge is presently parked in a pond off the southern bank of the river opposite.

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