Ajax Mine (Golden Belt), Neavesville (Nevesville), Thames-Coromandel District, Waikato Region, North Island, New Zealand
Latitude & Longitude (WGS84): | 37° 10' 3'' South , 175° 41' 47'' East |
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Latitude & Longitude (decimal): | -37.16751,175.69650 |
GeoHash: | G#: rckuw1f79 |
Köppen climate type: | Cfb : Temperate oceanic climate |
The site saw intermittent mining from 1875 to 1918, and was the largest gold producer on the goldfield. The mine produced between 1906 to 1920 23,160 ounces of gold and silver from 11,666 tonnes of ore at 19.6 g/t Au and 41 g/t Ag.
Activity is reported from 1875, with a low level tunnel being developed, battery and aerial tramway also erected by Rowe, Perry and Adams (surnames). Reports continue until 1877 when there is a trial crushing of 10 tonnes of ore for 7 ounces of gold.
Tributers are reported at the mine in 1899, then the Golden Belt Gold Mining Company starts at the location from 1902 to 1921 when the company went into liquidation. Regular development and crushing reports were published until 1917. The company had taken over the old Decide, Bonny Scotland, Golden Belt, Ajax, Venus and Golden Arrow leases. There was a 10 stamp mill and aerial tramway. Mining appears to have stopped in 1918, when part of the battery is placed up for sale, then in 1921 the company is in liquidation with the whole claim and now 20 stamp battery on the market.
The country rock is altered fine grained tuff in rhyolite, with much andesite. The Ajax Reef trends north-east, dipping steeply east. The property also contained the Britannia Reef, but had only been surface prospected. The Ajax Reef is 1500 feet long, the seam up to 5 metres wide, but very lenticular, occupying a normal fault on the western margin of the Neavesville graben. The lode contains much sheeted and brecciated greenish black country rock, and pyrite in the quartz veins. The quartz in the upper levels is often drusy, with abundant cavities. The Footwall and Hanging Walls are shattered with much clay, and sparsely impregnated with Au-Ag.
Mineral List
3 valid minerals.
Rock Types Recorded
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Alphabetical List Tree DiagramRegional 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] |
Pliocene - Late Miocene 2.588 - 11.62 Ma ID: 1308439 | Whitianga Group rhyolite lava and related deposits Age: Neogene (2.588 - 11.62 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Whitianga Group Description: Rhyolite lavas and dome complexes with associated breccia and tuff; minor obsidian and intense hydrothermal alteration locally. Comments: Zealandia Megasequence Extrusive and Intrusive Rocks (Neogene) Lithology: Rhyolite, breccia, tuffite 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: 1363187 | 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] |
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