Goldmine Stamper Battery

The name “Maoriland” originates from the Maoriland Gold Mining Company which installed this stamper battery in the Waitekauri area at the turn of the century. This company operated until 1914. Various other people owned and worked the battery up until 1945 when it was abandoned to the bush. It lay forgotten until it was rediscovered by a geologist, Stuart Rathbone, prospecting the Waitekauri area in 1972.

Members of the Tauranga Rock 8:Mineral Club, obtained directions and sketch maps and proceeded to spend several weeks searching for the stamper battery. So well concealed was it that they were eventually standing in the middle of the site before they realised their search was over. They found the equipment to be remarkably intact. The old driving bells still hung from the pelton wheel to the big wooden pulley from which the battery was driven. A brick kiln which had been used, when the battery was first established, for extraction by the mercury process was also found still standing.

The next step was to purchase the plant from Mr Ted Roberts who had worked it from 1930 to 1945. Mr Roberts had purchased the plant from the Crown for £2 10s.

To dismantle the stamper took the Club members many weekends. All the necessary gear had to be carried in by hand. A track needed to be bulldozed down a steep slope before any machinery could be moved out in order for it to be re-established at the Historic Village.

During its life at the Maoriland site the battery crushed 6,000 tonnes of quartz to produce 141 kgs of gold valued at £164,184. Today’s (1998) value — $2.5 million.