Omahu Mine (Energetic; We Three; Sheet Anchor; Capstan), Omahu, Thames-Coromandel District, Waikato Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Omahu Mine (Energetic; We Three; Sheet Anchor; Capstan)	- not defined -
Omahu	- not defined -
Thames-Coromandel District	District
Waikato Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

Historic gold mine.

Active from 1897 until around 1908. The Energetic is first mentioned in 1897, by prospectors Laurie and Stevenson (surnames). By 1899, the lease is under the name of Sheet Anchor, with J. Newdick, and John Thomas James Tilsley, brother D. Tilsley, sinking winzes onto the reef and driving a tunnel which ran under the reef and missed it due to its flat lying nature. The Capstan lease is also owned by this group. The Sheet Anchor lease achieves from 1899 to 1903 38 tonnes of ore for 465 ounces of gold. Meanwhile the We Three lease achieves 2 tonnes of ore for 92 ounces of gold by 1903.

Around 1903 an English syndicate called the Sheet Anchor Gold Mining Company takes over the Sheet Anchor lease, driving a tunnel 1400 feet which also misses the reef. A two stamp battery had been erected, described as steam powered and equivalent to a ten stamp normal battery. An aerial tramway is also erected. They abandon the property when their capital was exhausted.

In 1905, the Omahu Mines Limited is formed to take over several leases including We Three, Capstan, and Sheet Anchor at 250 acres in total. A five stamp battery is mentioned at this stage. The Omahu Company had 200 tonnes of ore at grass, and in 1906 the first crushing was still to take place. They abandon the property in 1907. In 1908, the Last Shot syndicate extracts 150 tonnes of ore from the We Three lease. When inspected in 1912, the mine had been abandoned, the battery removed, and the workings collasped. Between 1905 to 1908 the Omahu company mine had produced 836 tonnes of ore yielding 845 ounces of gold.

The country rock is andesite, with rhyolite tuff capping. At We Three there is with one vein trending north-east, 8-12 inches wide. Payable ore was found in the upper oxidised zone, which was much crushed and disjointed, partly recemented, and mixed with limonite infused clays. At the Sheet Anchor, the reef was historically described as flat, rubbly, 3-5 feet wide, with clay containing hard blocks of quartz with visible gold associated with un-named silver sulphides, and siliceous matter. The quartz was finely granular with rust stained cavities and joint planes, with patchy silver sulphides, and very fine gold. The vein is in ryholite tuff near its contact with andesite.

Historically the mines were said to be on the northern ridge above the two branches of the Omahu Creek, and two miles east of the Omahu Station (main highway). The Mindat co-ordinates are very approximate. The area is now thickly forested and difficult to access.

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References