A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold —sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals —that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia , Greece , New Zealand , Brazil , Chile , South Africa , the United States , and Canada while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.
43-599: The Aorere River is in the Tasman District of the South Island of New Zealand that flows from headwaters in the alpine regions of the Kahurangi National Park . It has a catchment area of 573 km (221 sq mi), representing around 11% of the total area of Kahurangi National Park. The river flows generally northwards for 40 km (25 mi) before draining into Golden Bay at
86-456: A gold-bearing vein may be oxidized, so that the gold occurs as native gold, and the ore needs only to be crushed and washed (free milling ore). The first miners may at first build a simple arrastra to crush their ore; later, they may build stamp mills to crush ore at greater speed. As the miners venture downwards, they may find that the deeper part of vein contains gold locked in sulfide or telluride minerals , which will require smelting . If
129-491: A single region in some contexts, but not for local government functions or resource management (planning) functions. Tasman Bay , the largest indentation in the north coast of the South Island , was named after Dutch seafarer, explorer and merchant Abel Tasman . He was the first European to discover New Zealand on 13 December 1642 while on an expedition for the Dutch East India Company . Tasman Bay passed
172-407: A transition through progressively higher capital expenditures, larger organizations, and more specialized knowledge. A rush typically begins with the discovery of placer gold made by an individual. At first the gold may be washed from the sand and gravel by individual miners with little training, using a gold pan or similar simple instrument. Once it is clear that the volume of gold-bearing sediment
215-810: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Tasman District Tasman District ( Māori : Te Tai o Aorere ) is a local government district in the northwest of the South Island of New Zealand. It borders the Canterbury Region , West Coast Region , Marlborough Region and Nelson City . It is administered by the Tasman District Council , a unitary authority , which sits at Richmond , with community boards serving outlying communities in Motueka and Golden Bay / Mohua . The city of Nelson has its own unitary authority separate from Tasman District, and together they comprise
258-797: Is a large area at the western corner of the north end of the South Island of New Zealand. It covers 9,616 square kilometres and is bounded on the west by the Matiri Ranges, Tasman Mountains and the Tasman Sea . To the north, Tasman and Golden Bays form its seaward edge, and the eastern boundary extends to the edge of Nelson city, and includes part of the Spenser Mountains and the Saint Arnaud and Richmond Ranges . The Victoria Ranges form Tasman's southern boundary and
301-509: Is abundant bush and bird life, golden sand beaches, the unique 40-kilometre sands of Farewell Spit , and good fishing in the bays and rivers. These assets make the district a popular destination for tourists. Tasman is home to three national parks: Abel Tasman National Park (New Zealand's smallest at 225.41 km ), Nelson Lakes National Park (1,017.53 km ) and Kahurangi National Park (4,520 km ). The Maruia Falls, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) southwest of Murchison, were created by
344-414: Is larger than a few cubic metres, the placer miners will build rockers or sluice boxes, with which a small group can wash gold from the sediment many times faster than using gold pans. Winning the gold in this manner requires almost no capital investment, only a simple pan or equipment that may be built on the spot, and only simple organisation. The low investment, the high value per unit weight of gold, and
387-426: Is the second most-spoken language. Famous former residents include the "father of nuclear physics" Sir Ernest Rutherford , former Prime Ministers Bill Rowling and Sir Keith Holyoake , and Sir Michael Myers , Chief Justice of New Zealand 1929–1946. The Tasman District has six towns with a population over 1,000. Together, they are home to 60.4% of the district's population. Other towns and settlements include
430-420: The 1929 Murchison earthquake when a slip blocked the original channel. Tasman District covers 9,615.58 km (3,712.60 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 60,000 as of June 2024, , representing 1.1% of New Zealand's population. The population density was 6.2 people per km . Tasman District had a population of 57,807 in the 2023 New Zealand census , an increase of 5,418 people (10.3%) since
473-799: The 2018 census , and an increase of 10,650 people (22.6%) since the 2013 census . There were 28,722 males, 28,887 females and 201 people of other genders in 22,617 dwellings. 2.5% of people identified as LGBTIQ+ . The median age was 46.8 years (compared with 38.1 years nationally). There were 9,498 people (16.4%) aged under 15 years, 8,523 (14.7%) aged 15 to 29, 26,322 (45.5%) aged 30 to 64, and 13,467 (23.3%) aged 65 or older. People could identify as more than one ethnicity. The results were 90.7% European ( Pākehā ); 9.9% Māori ; 2.6% Pasifika ; 4.0% Asian ; 0.8% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 3.2% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander". English
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#1732800903701516-582: The California Dream . Gold rushes helped spur waves of immigration that often led to the permanent settlement of new regions. Activities propelled by gold rushes define significant aspects of the culture of the Australian and North American frontiers . At a time when the world's money supply was based on gold , the newly-mined gold provided economic stimulus far beyond the goldfields, feeding into local and wider economic booms . The Gold Rush
559-690: The Cariboo district and other parts of British Columbia, in Nevada , in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado , Idaho , Montana , eastern Oregon , and western New Mexico Territory and along the lower Colorado River . There was a gold rush in Nova Scotia (1861–1876) which produced nearly 210,000 ounces of gold. Resurrection Creek , near Hope, Alaska was the site of Alaska's first gold rush in
602-491: The 10 years to 2023, economic growth in the district was an average of 4.4% p.a., compared with 3.0% p.a. for all of New Zealand. Gold rush In the 19th century, the wealth that resulted was distributed widely because of reduced migration costs and low barriers to entry. While gold mining itself proved unprofitable for most diggers and mine owners, some people made large fortunes, and merchants and transportation facilities made large profits. The resulting increase in
645-565: The 1920s and 1930s. Fruit-growing started at the end of the 19th century. By 1945, it was making a significant contribution to the local economy, and that importance continues today. As an administrative unit of local government , the Tasman District formed in 1989 within the Nelson-Marlborough Regional Council . The Tasman District Council became a unitary authority in 1992. Tasman District
688-513: The UAE with the exports affirmed by the African states. According to Africa's industrial mining firms, they have not exported any amount of gold to the UAE – confirming that the imports come from other, illegal sources. As per customs data, the UAE imported gold worth $ 15.1 billion from Africa in 2016, with a total weight of 446 tons, in variable degrees of purity. Much of the exports were not recorded in
731-828: The United States was in Cabarrus County, North Carolina (east of Charlotte), in 1799 at today's Reed's Gold Mine . Thirty years later, in 1829, the Georgia Gold Rush in the southern Appalachians occurred. It was followed by the California Gold Rush of 1848–55 in the Sierra Nevada , which captured the popular imagination. The California Gold Rush led to an influx of gold miners and newfound gold wealth, which led to California's rapid industrialization, as businesses sprung up to serve
774-658: The ability of gold dust and gold nuggets to serve as a medium of exchange, allow placer gold rushes to occur even in remote locations. After the sluice-box stage, placer mining may become increasingly large scale, requiring larger organisations and higher capital expenditures. Small claims owned and mined by individuals may need to be merged into larger tracts. Difficult-to-reach placer deposits may be mined by tunnels. Water may be diverted by dams and canals to placer mine active river beds or to deliver water needed to wash dry placers. The more advanced techniques of ground sluicing , hydraulic mining and dredging may be used. Typically
817-515: The area suggests considerable warfare interrupted the settlement process. Around 1828, Ngāti Toa (under Te Rauparaha ) and the allied northern tribes of Ngāti Rārua and Ngāti Tama started their invasion of the South Island . They took over much of the area from Farewell Spit to the Wairau River . British immigrant ships from England arrived in Nelson in 1842 and European settlement of
860-422: The census question. Of those at least 15 years old, 7,281 (15.1%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, 26,712 (55.3%) had a post-high school certificate or diploma, and 11,781 (24.4%) people exclusively held high school qualifications. The median income was $ 35,900, compared with $ 41,500 nationally. 4,137 people (8.6%) earned over $ 100,000 compared to 12.1% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15
903-482: The district's highest point is Mount Franklin , at 2,340 metres. The landscape is diverse, from large mountainous areas to valleys and plains, and is sliced by such major rivers as the Buller , Motueka , Aorere , Tākaka and Wairoa . The limestone -rich area around Mount Owen and Mount Arthur is notable for its extensive cave networks, among them New Zealand's deepest caves at Ellis Basin and Nettlebed . There
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#1732800903701946-479: The focus may change progressively from gold to silver to base metals. In this way, Leadville, Colorado started as a placer gold discovery, achieved fame as a silver-mining district, then relied on lead and zinc in its later days. Butte, Montana began mining placer gold, then became a silver-mining district, then became for a time the world's largest copper producer. Various gold rushes occurred in Australia over
989-428: The following: Tasman District Council ( unitary authority ) headquarters are at Richmond , close to the adjoining Nelson City , which is 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) further north. The head of local government is the mayor . Community Boards exist to serve outlying areas in Motueka and Golden Bay . The GDP of the Tasman District was $ NZ 3.11 billion in 2033, representing 0.8% of New Zealand's national GDP. Over
1032-437: The heyday of a placer gold rush would last only a few years. The free gold supply in stream beds would become depleted somewhat quickly, and the initial phase would be followed by prospecting for veins of lode gold that were the original source of the placer gold. Hard rock mining, like placer mining, may evolve from low capital investment and simple technology to progressively higher capital and technology. The surface outcrop of
1075-540: The increased population and financial and political institutions to handle the increased wealth. One of these political institutions was statehood; the need for new laws in a sparsely-governed land led to the state's rapid entry into the Union in 1850. The gold rush in 1849 also stimulated worldwide interest in prospecting for gold, leading to further rushes in Australia, South Africa, Wales and Scotland. Successive gold rushes occurred in western North America: Fraser Canyon ,
1118-694: The mid–1890s. Other notable Alaska Gold Rushes were Nome , Fairbanks , and the Fortymile River . One of the last "great gold rushes" was the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon Territory (1896–99). This gold rush is featured in the novels of Jack London , and Charlie Chaplin 's film The Gold Rush . Robert William Service depicted in his poetries the Gold Rush, especially in the book The Trail of '98 . The main goldfield
1161-538: The name on to the adjoining district, which was formed in 1989 largely from the merger of Waimea and Golden Bay counties. According to tradition, the Māori waka Uruao brought ancestors of the Waitaha people to Tasman Bay in the 12th century. Archaeological evidence suggests that early Māori settlers explored the region thoroughly, settling mainly along the coast where there was ample food. The succession of tribes into
1204-683: The new arrivals who came looking for gold. While some found their fortune, those who did not often remained in the colonies and took advantage of extremely liberal land laws to take up farming. Gold rushes happened at or around: In New Zealand the Otago gold rush from 1861 attracted prospectors from the California gold rush and the Victorian gold rush and many moved on to the West Coast gold rush from 1864. The first significant gold rush in
1247-465: The ore is still sufficiently rich, it may be worth shipping to a distant smelter (direct shipping ore). Lower-grade ore may require on-site treatment to either recover the gold or to produce a concentrate sufficiently rich for transport to the smelter. As the district turns to lower-grade ore, the mining may change from underground mining to large open-pit mining . Many silver rushes followed upon gold rushes. As transportation and infrastructure improve,
1290-599: The region began under the leadership of Captain Arthur Wakefield . From 1853 to 1876, the area of the present-day Tasman District formed part of Nelson Province . In the 1850s, agriculture and pastoral farming started and villages developed on the Waimea Plains and at Motueka. In 1856, the discovery of gold near Collingwood sparked New Zealand's first gold rush . Significant reserves of iron ore were found at Onekaka , where an ironworks operated during
1333-668: The region. The gold deposits in this area are identified as one of the largest in the world. In South Africa, the Witwatersrand Gold Rush in the Transvaal was important to that country's history, leading to the founding of Johannesburg and tensions between the Boers and British settlers as well as the Chinese miners. South African gold production went from zero in 1886 to 23% of the total world output in 1896. At
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1376-552: The second half of the 19th century. The most significant of these, although not the only ones, were the New South Wales gold rush and Victorian gold rush in 1851, and the Western Australian gold rushes of the 1890s. They were highly significant to their respective colonies' political and economic development as they brought many immigrants, and promoted massive government spending on infrastructure to support
1419-597: The smuggling of billions of dollars' worth of gold out of Africa through the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East , which further acts as a gateway to the markets in the United States , Europe and more. The news agency evaluated the worth and magnitude of illegal gold trade occurring in African nations like Ghana , Tanzania , and Zambia , by comparing the total gold imports recorded into
1462-561: The time of the South African rush, gold production benefited from the newly discovered techniques by Scottish chemists, the MacArthur-Forrest process , of using potassium cyanide to extract gold from low-grade ore. The gold mine at El Callao (Venezuela), started in 1871, was for a time one of the richest in the world, and the goldfields as a whole saw over a million ounces exported between 1860 and 1883. The gold mining
1505-510: The town of Collingwood . The Heaphy Track 's northeastern end is in the upper valley of the Aorere. Tributaries of the Aorere include the Spey , Boulder , and Slate Rivers . The heaviest storm in 150 years hit the area on 28 December 2010. Two bridges were swept away, including the historic and recently restored Salisbury Swing Bridge. This article about a river in the Tasman District
1548-406: The world's gold supply stimulated global trade and investment. Historians have written extensively about the mass migration, trade, colonization, and environmental history associated with gold rushes. Gold rushes were typically marked by a general buoyant feeling of a "free-for-all" in income mobility , in which any single individual might become abundantly wealthy almost instantly, as expressed in
1591-594: The world, according to Communities and Small-Scale Mining (CASM). Approximately 100 million people are directly or indirectly dependent on small-scale mining. For example, there are 800,000 to 1.5 million artisanal miners in Democratic Republic of Congo , 350,000 to 650,000 in Sierra Leone , and 150,000 to 250,000 in Ghana , with millions more across Africa. In an exclusive report, Reuters accounted
1634-514: Was a topic that inspired many TV shows and books considering it was a very important topic at the time. During the time, many books were published including The Call of the Wild , which had much success during the period. Gold rushes occurred as early as the times of ancient Greece , whose gold mining was described by Diodarus Sicules and Pliny the Elder . Within each mining rush there is typically
1677-805: Was along the south flank of the Klondike River near its confluence with the Yukon River near what was to become Dawson City in Yukon Territory, but it also helped open up the relatively new US possession of Alaska to exploration and settlement, and promoted the discovery of other gold finds. The most successful of the North American gold rushes was the Porcupine Gold Rush in Timmins, Ontario area. This gold rush
1720-681: Was dominated by immigrants from the British Isles and the British West Indies, giving an appearance of almost creating an English colony on Venezuelan territory. Between 1883 and 1906 Tierra del Fuego experienced a gold rush attracting many Chileans, Argentines and Europeans to the archipelago. The gold rush began in 1884 following discovery of gold during the rescue of the French steamship Arctique near Cape Virgenes . There are about 10 to 30 million small-scale miners around
1763-556: Was spoken by 97.8%, Māori language by 2.0%, Samoan by 0.5% and other languages by 9.2%. No language could be spoken by 1.5% (e.g. too young to talk). New Zealand Sign Language was known by 0.5%. The percentage of people born overseas was 21.2, compared with 28.8% nationally. Religious affiliations were 27.0% Christian , 0.4% Hindu , 0.2% Islam , 0.3% Māori religious beliefs , 1.0% Buddhist , 0.7% New Age , 0.1% Jewish , and 1.1% other religions. People who answered that they had no religion were 61.4%, and 8.1% of people did not answer
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1806-524: Was that 22,566 (46.7%) people were employed full-time, 7,983 (16.5%) were part-time, and 870 (1.8%) were unemployed. The main iwi represented in the wider Tasman region are Ngati Rarua, Ngati Tama (Golden Bay / Mohua and Tasman Bay), Te Atiawa, Ngati Koata, Ngati Kuia (eastern Tasman Bay) and the Poutini Ngāi Tahu (southern areas). In Tasman District, German is the second most-spoken language after English, whereas in most regions of New Zealand Māori
1849-500: Was unique compared to others by the method of extraction of the gold. Placer mining techniques were not able to be used to access the gold in the area due to it being embedded into the Canadian Shield , so larger mining operations involving significantly more expensive equipment was required. While this gold rush peaked in the 1940s and 1950s, it is still active today with over 200 million ounces of gold having been produced from
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