Inglewood Mine (Victoria; Phoenix; North Star), Reefton, Buller District, West Coast Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Inglewood Mine (Victoria; Phoenix; North Star)	Mine
Reefton	Town
Buller District	District
West Coast Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

Access to the Inglewood gold mine site requires a 5 hour steep walk up the Victoria Range, starting from Blacks Point 2 kilometres east of Reefton, along the Machine/Ajax tracks, and back along the Murray Creek Track, passing the Ajax, Chandler's, Cement Town, and Energetic mine sites along the way.

Photographs from 1938 show buildings and the poppet head remaining at the mine, however by the late 1970's photographs these appear gone, although much machinery remains. There is less so now, but still shafts, a steam winch, boilers, and the stamp battery can be seen.

The Inglewood, Victoria, Phoenix and North Star mines all shared the same ore channel. The first crushing at Inglewood was in October 1872, Phoenix October 1874, North Star 1875. The Inglewood and Phoenix properties jointly erected a 10 head battery in 1883. North Star was absorbed by the Inglewood company in 1879, then ten years later did the same to the Phoenix property. As most of the history shows the mines worked together, they have been jointly listed on Mindat.

Operations by this stage were unprofitable, and the mines were let on tribute, who obtained much gold over the next three years. Mining ground to a halt between 1897 to 1901, at which point the leases were taken over by P.N. Kingswell, who added a cyanide plant to the mill. This period of activity was also not successful, and a Reefton syndicate acquire the property in 1908, then Wellington Mines purchased the leases in 1910, the company merging with Murray Creek Mines in 1911. A new shoot was found in the Victoria lease, and after a long negotiation, the properties were acquired by Consolidated Goldfields of New Zealand Ltd.

The Inglewood and Phoenix mines were operated by short adits on opposite sides of the headwaters of the Inglewood Creek. There was also a No. 3 Inglewood (also called United Inglewood, or North Star) adit, and No. 4 Inglewood adit driven originally by the Phoenix company. P.N. Kingswell cleared out the old Victoria adit in 1903, the Victoria lease also containing two more adits 120 and 190 feet long. Knight and party who tributed from 1891 to 1896, also added a new adit. The No. 5 Inglewood adit was 220 feet below No. 4, while Murray Creek Mines in 1913 sank a shaft near the entrance to No. 4 adit. There are likely a number of tunnel entrances hidden by the dense beech forest in the area.

The lodes are unique in the Reefton area for they dip vertically. Galena concentrations are up to 1% volume in the ore.

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References