There was a 130% return in dividends to shareholders from the original 18 000 pounds capital invested. The Blackball company operated from 1938 to 1947 in Ford Creek achieving 15 390.8 ounces of gold. The 1930's saw larger locally owned electric powered dredges of the Blackball and Argo companies. 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 site had several earlier dredging operations. The dredge was operational from 1992 to 2004 across 220 hectares achieving around 55 000 ounces of gold. It is known as the Grey River or Birchfield dredge, with Birchfield purchasing the dredge in 1992 from the Grey River Gold Mining Ltd. Its new mining licence had been hard fought, opposed by conservation groups, and government departments worried about fish stocks in the Grey River.ĭredging 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.īirchfield is a local family owned mining business, their dredging lease at the confluence of the Grey River, with Ford and Blackball Creeks. Its been idle for several years, but as of 2017 when this was written was for sale. Said to be the last bucket ladder operational gold dredge in the southern hemisphere.
![gold dredge gold dredge](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1470/8540/articles/bd0e531ff026e97333feacc46243c014_1200x1200.jpg)
1993.Sitting in a pond on the alluvial bearing flats by the Grey River outside Blackball, is Birchfield's World War Two era dredge. Box 942896, Sacramento, CA 94296-0001 / ¬© California Department of Parks and Recreation. Grieve Original film production: 1973 Distributed by California Department of Parks and Recreation Publications Section. Hough Photography by: William Helck Edited by: Roy Nolan Directed by: David D. Time - 16 minutes 27 seconds Written and produced by: Arthur S. The dredge depicted in this film could process 90,000 cubic yards of river gravel every week - enough (in good times) to produce a 30-pound gold ingot. Cyanide processing was done right on board the dredge. They relied on river water for sluicing and separating the dredged material. Originally powered by steam, later dredges used diesel-electric power plants. You see the dredge in operation, and also view the ongoing maintenance necessary to keep it going. The dreadge featured here, one of the very last to operate, coud handle 18 cubic feet of river gravel per minute, sortign, separating, and processing the muck to extract gold. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many people called them land-going ships because they floated across the otherwise dry landscape in their own self-made ponds. Printed on tape container: "These massive dredges were designed to recover millions of dollars worth of gold from Northern California's ancient river bottoms. © California Department of Parks and Recreation.
![gold dredge gold dredge](http://www.idiggold2.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2-motors-with-flap-up.jpg)
These massive dredges were designed to recover millions of dollars worth of gold from Northern California's ancient river bottoms.