Una Hill Mine (New Una), Thames, Thames-Coromandel District, Waikato Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Una Hill Mine (New Una)	- not defined -
Thames	Town
Thames-Coromandel District	District
Waikato Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

Una Hill backs directly east of the town of Thames. Its name is thought to have come from John Gibbons daughter, Isabell Una Gibbons.

Gibbons arrived in Thames shortly after gold was discovered, and with an engineering background organised the Gibbons battery to be built on Karaka Creek. The Una Gold Mining and Quartz Crushing Company was registered on 09 October 1868 to take over the battery, and develop the lease Gibbons owned covering most of the western face of Una Hill. A tramway was built from the mines, down the hill to the battery. The mine was accessed via four adits.

Susan Andrews (11) was killed as she crossed the tracks by a runaway ore cart in 1873.

The company ceased operations in 1878. Over the next few decades several companies and individuals operated on the hill, in a reverse of the amalgamations that usually occur on a goldfield over time. They included the Dive, Success, Occidental, New Una, and Occidental New Una United companies.

The New Una Gold Mining Company was active in the first decade of the 20th Century, and covered a portion of the old Una lease, adjacent Vanguard, May Queen Extended, and New Occidental claims. The company was formed in 1903 in Auckland, and had by 1908 produced 290 tonnes of ore yielding 178 ounces of gold.

In 1932 the Thames Una Consolidated Gold Mining Company tried unsuccessfully to float. In 1935 the Una Hill Consolidated Gold Mines Limited was formed to re-open the mines through the old adit No. 4. With the help of a government subsidy, by 1942 273 ounces had been produced before mining ceased.

The Mindat co-ordinates mark the site of the Gibbons battery. This is at 211 Karaka Road, and is thought to be the flat area in the backyard of this private residence. Nothing of the battery remains, and is private property. Individual mines, where significant enough, will be listed separately for the Una Hill area.

As a general geology comment of the hill. The country rock is well consolidated fine grained purplish-grey, highly propylitised andesite, with belts of hard dark un-altered andesite. Quartz veins are up to 3 feet thick, erratic, non persistent, with no depth. They do however form stock works, and have been mined in bulk. Rich ore was found where veins intersect. The ore within the quartz veins include pyrite, sparsely distributed sphalerite, chalcopyrite, stibnite, cherty silica, and rare ankerite. Dark granular pyrite may recement fractured quartz.

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