Tinkers diggings, Ophir (Blacks; Omakau), Central Otago District, Otago Region, South Island, New Zealand

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	45° 0' 19'' South , 169° 34' 14'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-45.00550,169.57070
Köppen climate type:	Cfb : Temperate oceanic climate

Old alluvial gold diggings.

The diggings can be reached by turning into White Road at Omakau, then shortly after turning right into Chestermains Road, and travelling along this to the end of the road at the base of the Dunstan Mountains. Apart from the diggings, the Newtown Hotel (closed) remains, and a sluicing gun beside Sugarpot Road.

Gold was discovered here early 1863, and by December the same year the diggings contained 200 miners. However, by April the following year only 60 remained. This continued to slide until companies, and more persistent parties established themselves, and mined the site across the 1880's and 1890's.

Placer gold is found in layers in gravel containing rounded and sub-angular schist clasts, with interlayered loess horizons, and minor grey mudstone. This is overlain with coarse poorly sorted immature schist gravel containing dispersed gold, and underlain by clay altered schist basement. The gravel units have been folded and faulted along the Dunstan Range front.

The Blue Duck Company had gone by the name of the Mountain Race, or Mountain Company previously from the early 1870's. It was reported in 1889, the Blue Duck Company paid 45 000 pounds in dividends across 15 years from mining alluvial gold at Tinkers. The company amalgamated with the neighbouring Undaunted Company in 1902, which had also been operating at the site since the early 1870's.

John Mellor was bankrupt in 1870, however it did not seem to impede him in subsequent years opening the Newtown Hotel, Ballarat Store, and two mining claims with his brother G. Mellor. John Martin is noted as being also part owner of the mining claims. The town had a library, church, blacksmiths, and a number of houses, of which little remains.

Others across the 1870's and 1880's was Symes (spelt variously) and Morgan, Read and party, Sammon and party, Murphy and party, as operating on the field. In 1889, John Ewing, and several other miners on the field, combined resources to sink a 240 foot shaft to test gold at depth. They sank through three gold layers, but did not reach bed-rock, before water flooded the shaft, and it had to be abandoned.

The Tinkers Gold Mining Company was formed in 1902, headed by John Ewing, and appointing Joseph or George Naylor as mine manager. The company was working the rich Sugarpot or Deep Lead lease, and issued 750 pounds in dividends in the first 6 months.

The Undaunted Tinkers Gold Mining Company Limited was formed in 1921, to mine the alluvial gravels at Tinkers, then the company went into liquidation in 1923. More mining took place across several small, now water filled, open pits in the 1980's.

Mineral List

3 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Holocene 0 - 0.0117 Ma ID: 1356425	OIS1 (Holocene) mining waste Age: Anthropocene (0 - 0.0117 Ma) Description: Well sorted sandy quartz, schist and sandstone gravels in dredge tailings and sluicing deposits; anthromorphic fossils. Comments: Holocene human-made deposits. Age based on known Lithology: Major:: {gravel},Minor:: {sand} Reference: Heron, D.W. . Geology Map of New Zealand 1:250 000. GNS Science Geological Map 1. [13]
Quaternary 0 - 2.588 Ma ID: 1310999	Late Quaternary alluvium and colluvium Age: Pleistocene (0 - 2.588 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Pakihi Supergroup Description: Unconsolidated to poorly consolidated mud, sand, gravel and peat of alluvial and colluvial origin. Comments: Zealandia Megasequence Terrestrial and Shallow Marine Sedimentary Rocks (Neogene) Lithology: Mud, sand, gravel, peat Reference: Edbrooke, S.W., Heron, D.W., Forsyth, P.J., Jongens, R. (compilers). Geology Map of New Zealand 1:1 000 000. GNS Science Geological Map 2. [12]
Jurassic - Triassic 145 - 252.17 Ma ID: 3185705	Mesozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks Age: Mesozoic (145 - 252.17 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Torlesse Supergroup Lithology: Mafic volcanic rocks; basalt; chert,greywacke,argillite,limestone Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References