New Zealand - Chinese goldminers ground sluicing at Blackwater, West Coast
- Scene at Blackwater, Inangahua County. A group of four Chinese goldminers are sluicing for gold with a ground sluice.
- Circa 1915
- William Archer Price photo
Mining for gold
- A small prospecting group discovered a gold-bearing quartz reef near the upper reaches of Blackwater Creek, a tributary of the Grey River, on 9 November 1905.
- As the discovery was made on King Edward VII's birthday, it was loyally named the Birthday Reef.
- The rights were subsequently purchased by Consolidated Goldfields (NZ) Ltd, a large British-owned company that dominated the Reefton quartz mining industry.
- The company invested heavily to develop a mine and processing plant as well as a town for their workers
(Reference: NZ History)
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Image source: Chinese goldminers ground sluicing at Blackwater, West Coast. Price, William Archer, 1866-1948 :Collection of post card negatives. Ref: PAColl-3057-1-07. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23155392
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23155392