Barrytown, Greymouth, Grey District, West Coast Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Barrytown	- not defined -
Greymouth	- not defined -
Grey District	District
West Coast Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

Scheelite mineralisation is associated with a small pluton of potassic S-type granite intruding Greenland Group metasedimentary rocks, which are locally hornfelsed at contacts.

Mineral sands
Resources at Barrytown have been estimated at 50 million tonnes of potentially mineable sand at an average grade of 100 mg/m3 gold, 13.8% ilmenite, 0.2% zircon, and less than 0.1% each of monazite and rutile.

Prospecting for gold occurred at Canoe Creek near Barrytown in 1866, however it was 1879 that a major rush occurred attracting 2000 miners. R.H. Wessels applied for a reward claim, but was turned down. Fosberry, and Barryville were earlier names for the settlement. The town once had eleven hotels, with only the All Nations Hotel still standing today. Gold mining has continued until recent times, mainly small operations by individual miners known as 'blacksanding' along the beach, and large dredges from 1937 to 1945.

Activity has occurred on the Barrytown Flats, an area of beach sands 15 kilometres long, and up to 2 kilometres wide, surrounded on three sides by mountains, and the fourth the Tasman Sea. The area is mainly cleared for farming, with small pockets of scrub and swamp.

The lowland shows successive Pleistocene era shorelines, with sandy leads containing considerable gold, and in recent decades the substantial ilmenite in the black sands has been recognised as a resource. The old shorelines have been lifted slightly, with younger more widely spaced shorelines nearer the beach are close to sea level.

The Barrytown Flat Gold Mining Company erected a plant, and conducted mining in the late 1890's. The Barrytown Gold Dredging Ltd was formed in September 1934 in Sydney, a subsidiary of Gold Mines of New Zealand Limited, with 128 750 pounds capital, mainly Australian shareholders. The Barrytown dredge was on the southern section of the flats, and ceased operations in 1945 when the amount of gold being recovered did not meet costs. White's Electric Dredging Company operated on the Old Beach Road to 17 Mile, and was active from around 1936 to 1940.

Ilmenite sands have been explored by Carpentaria Exploration Co. Pty Ltd in 1976. Fletcher Challenge Ltd made a bid at mining, involving CRA (now Rio Tinto), who constructed a large pilot plant (40 000 tonnes pa), trial mining producing 150 tonnes of concentrate across May/June 1990. The project was abandoned as uneconomic. North Ltd acquired the leases, then Rio again who dismantled the plant, and conducted rehabilitation. Alloy Resources took over the leases in 2009, and Pacific Mineral Resources Ltd in 2017.

The lack of large scale mining is the result of a lower titanium dioxide percentage, compared to major mineral sands exporter Western Australia (47% compared to 55%); refusals by government authorities to allow the mining of wetlands; restrictions resulting from the nearby Westland Petrel nesting ground (an endangered species, and its sole nesting area); no substantial port on the West Coast with the sand having to be railed over the Southern Alps. On the positive side, the sand is easy to process, and is more economically attractive if concentrated on site, and sold small scale to the local New Zealand market, which at present imports all its ilmenite.

Occasional nephrite jade is found along beaches in the region.

References

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