Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	37° 23' 40'' South , 175° 51' 33'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-37.39464,175.85938
GeoHash:	G#: rcm53b8bk
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	Cfb : Temperate oceanic climate

Historic gold mine.

The Winner mine is located just east of Waihi, and several hundred metres south-west of the modern Oceanagold processing plant, in a patch of forest surrounded by farmland.

Prospecting is noted across 1886 to 1887 at the site by E. Kersey Cooper. Various drives are mentioned on quartz lodes, although little is said about mineralised ore, and in fact information dries up after 1887. The deposit is located at the far southern end of what modern geology calls the Favona vein, but whether it is mineralised at this southern extent is open to question. Shortly after Kersey Cooper, the Waihi Union Company takes over the lease along with several in the area, but shows little interest in exploring it.

(Oldfield, 1989) makes some mention of Winner Hill, and the old workings, but focuses mainly on Gladstone Hill to the north. Oldfield states the Winner site contains silicified andesite, with quartz veins, and voids coated with sugary quartz. The veins dip steeply west or north-west. Chalcedony and quartz pseudomorphing calcite also occurs. At the south-east base of Winner Hill is a brecciated area of pyritic chert. Fractures are filled with quartz or brown silica.

The Winner No. 3 drive was visited showing fine quartz, and quartz pseudomorphing calcite, with wall rock coated with white or tan clay and a quartz mixture.

No base metal or gold is specifically mentioned at Winner Hill by Oldfield, however if it does exist is likely to be base metal sulphides like sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite, with gold found as inclusions in electrum within the sulphides, at least based on nearby geology.

Mineral List

3 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Quaternary 0 - 2.588 Ma ID: 3187411	Cenozoic volcanic rocks Age: Pleistocene (0 - 2.588 Ma) Lithology: Ignimbrite(s); felsic volcanic rocks; rhyolite Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]
Early Pliocene - Late Miocene 3.6 - 11.62 Ma ID: 1309379	Coromandel Group Pliocene andesite and basaltic andesite lava Age: Neogene (3.6 - 11.62 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Coromandel Group Description: Andesite and basaltic andesite lava, tuff and tuff breccia; andesite and dacite dikes. Comments: Zealandia Megasequence Extrusive and Intrusive Rocks (Neogene) Lithology: Andesite, tuffite, tuff-breccia, dacite Reference: Edbrooke, S.W., Heron, D.W., Forsyth, P.J., Jongens, R. (compilers). Geology Map of New Zealand 1:1 000 000. GNS Science Geological Map 2. [12]
Messinian - Tortonian 5.333 - 11.62 Ma ID: 1354470	Waiwawa Subgroup andesite and dacite (Coromandel Group) of Coromandel Volcanic Zone Age: Miocene (5.333 - 11.62 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Waiwawa Subgroup Description: Andesite, dacite and rhyodacite flows and domes with intercalated tuff, tuff breccia and volcaniclastic sediments. Local, non--welded, dacitic, pumice-rich ignimbrite. Comments: Neogene igneous rocks. Age based on K-Ar Lithology: Major:: {andesite},Minor:: {dacite, rhyodacite, tuff, breccia} Reference: Heron, D.W. . Geology Map of New Zealand 1:250 000. GNS Science Geological Map 1. [13]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References