Cushla Norman speaks to the Kiwis ditching their jobs to chase riches as the gold price soars, prompting a new gold rush with a competitive edge .
Mal Blown is one of a growing number of people leaving their day jobs to hunt for the treasure fulltime. He packed in his building job in Wairarapa to move to Arrowtown for the summer along with his dog, Nugget.
“I've got gold fever. It's extremely contagious.”
“It's the shininess. It's the lure of gold. Soon as it's in your hand, you possess that tier one currency.”
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Gold is regarded as a safe-haven asset during uncertain economic times. It typically maintains or increases its value but has been on a wild ride since the start of this year. In the space of three days, the price went from a record high to its biggest one day drop since 1983. It’s since rebounded and is sitting at around US4900 ($8100) an ounce.
The high price has enticed Mal to give gold hunting a proper go. He’d previously been a recreational miner for about 12 years.
His goal is to find about 12 ounces this summer, allowing him to pay the bills then take winter off. But there are no guarantees he’ll strike it lucky.
“The price might be high and there might be a big gold rush on, but it never guarantees you gold.”
He works with companies that have their own claims. A claim is a government permit for small-scale mining on a specific part of a river using powered equipment like dredges.
The number of permits for this type of mining has taken off in recent years. Forty permits were issued last year and 36 in 2024, compared with just four in 2023 and eight in 2022.
The extraction rights can last up to ten years and cost thousands of dollars, but their locations are a closely guarded secret.
“It's quite protective. Especially if you’ve got a good area, and someone finds out about it. You'll come back the next day, and that whole place is smoked.”
Gold, it seems, can test a person’s true character. Mal’s left a spot he’s been working on before, only to come back in the morning and it’s been completely cleared out and gold taken.
“There's a lot of double crossing - unscrupulous behaviour that can go down.”
Claim jumping, as it’s known, is illegal and is punishable by up to two years in jail or a $400,000 fine.
Mal has permission from the permit holder to work on the claim he’s taken us to. He has a deal with them that if he finds a nugget, he’s allowed to keep it but must disclose where he found it.
“I would submit a GPS co-ordinate of where that rich patch is, and they may use that for a commercial means down the line.”
'Like a little boy on a treasure hunt'
Garry Barnes from Wanaka has given up his job to go mining full time on a claim he has in a remote part of the South Island.
“We'd rather go look for gold than do what we do," he says.
“The gold price helps, but it's the adventure. It's been out into the middle of New Zealand, your own backyard, and being like a little boy on a treasure hunt again.”
His mission has been delayed by a wet summer so he now plans to start dredging in autumn.
Dredgers are machines mounted on a floating platform with a sluice box on top. A hose acts like an underwater vacuum cleaner, sucking up gravel and sand, hopefully containing gold.
It requires divers to direct the nozzle and help move big rocks and boulders out of the way. It’s been described as "underwater Les Mills" with divers spending hours in often icy cold waters.
Luckily for Garry, he’s got wet suits with a hot water system.
“We're set up for diving through the winter, so we'll just have to grin and bear it and deal with icy water.”
But he’s got his eye on the prize.
“When you're finding gold, you can grin quite, quite nicely. Thank you very much.”
'Demand is huge'
As the saying goes, in a gold rush, sell shovels.
Charles Innes is doing just that at his store Dredge NZ on the Lindis Pass near Omarama.
He bought the business in 2022 and has noticed a 50% increase in custom.
“Demand is huge, it took off mid last year. Pretty much caught us unawares.”
The gold price went up, then sales followed suit he said.
“Everyone's getting into it.”
While business is good, Charles said he’s got big costs, like shipping and the exchange rate.
“We absorb a lot of those costs, so we don't pass everything on to our customers.”
It allows him the lifestyle he wants, which is dredging for gold every Friday, Saturday and Sunday on a claim he has shares in.
He’s got the bug.
“Once you've got that first taste and glitter in your pan, you're forever changed.”
In five days of dredging over summer, he’s collected a bit more than two ounces of fine alluvial gold, worth about $17,000.
He stills think there’s a lot more out there that the old timers missed in the first gold rush of the 1860s because they didn’t have the technology.
“Now we've got suction dredgers, we've got metal detectors that can detect gold. So, yeah, the technology has changed it.”
Public fossicking areas
Anyone can try their luck at finding gold on one of 19 designated public fossicking areas, but they must only use non-motorised hand tools like pans.
But Mal thinks there needs to be more sites, saying it would help to prevent claim jumping.
“The rules haven't been altered, and the boundaries haven't been altered. Some of them are really small. Some of them have got no gold left in them.”
The Arrow River in Arrowtown is a public fossicking area.
Local retailer Mandy Keep used to prospect in it every day before she cashed in her gold to open a shop.
She used to find between a gram and half a gram on a good day.
“You have to work your hiney to get the shiny, per se, it's not easy work.”
The former gold panning teacher and tour guide is convinced there’s still more gold in the Arrow.
“I can do a quick pan in 30 seconds with people and get them a flake of gold,” she says.
Watch Cushla Norman's story with the new wave of gold prospectors on TVNZ+
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