There’s gold in them thar hills
In a case of history repeating itself, a small Marlborough settlement may be about to experience a second gold rush.
Canvastown, 50 kilometres northwest of Blenheim, sprang into existence in 1864 after gold was discovered in the Wakamarina Valley, leading to a rush of prospectors setting up camp and living in the tents that gave Canvastown its name.
Now, more than 150 years later, mining company Elect Mining is in the process of applying for resource consent to set up a new mine in the town.
The company has already secured a mining permit through New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals to extract gold from a 120-hectare site straddling both sides of State Highway 6 in Canvastown.
The concentration of alluvial gold in the area, which is covered by rolling farmland, is among the richest the company and its drilling contractor have seen in New Zealand, its mining permit application says.
Based on the concentrations found in the area, Elect Mining estimated there was around 3000 kilograms of gold at the Canvastown site, which works out about $120 million based on gold prices on Monday.
Canvastown Community Association chairwoman Linden Armstrong
‘‘we're hoping we do have a little bit of a boom around the valley’’
Linden Armstrong
says gold was first found in the area when Elizabeth Catherine Pope went down to the river to do her washing.
But it was not until 1864, when a group of local men ventured to a spot on the river armed with tools and a sluice box that the gold rush took off.
The more accessible gold was mined often with simple tools.
The gold rush dried up, and the population of the town dwindled as the miners left to seek their fortune elsewhere, so Armstrong says having another boom might be a good thing for the community.
‘‘The church is no longer a registered church, the shop is no longer a shop, and the hotel is getting very old,’’ she said.
‘‘But we are still a village and we’ve got a very active school, so we’re hoping we do have a little bit of a boom around the valley if that’s what happens.’’
Elect Mining needs resource consent from the Marlborough District Council. If it does go ahead, the company planned to dig pits, which would be back-filled as the work progressed in stages, to a depth of between 14 and 16 metres.