A panorama showing the rusting remains of an old gold mining dredge that was once used to extract alluvial gold from the sand. Today it sits as a reminder amongst the dunes and gorse.

Gold Mining Dredge at Gillespies Beach - Fox Glacier visitor guide showing a virtual tour of 'Gold Mining Dredge at Gillespies Beach' linked to an interactive map with local and travel information. 360° panoramas from West Coast.

Gillespies Beach community, a short distance from Fox Glacier, grew up around gold mining, and in the 1860's the township by the beach was large enough to support several taverns. Today, little of this remains except for the decaying gold dredges, a small cemetery and path to a miners tunnel.

The gold mined at Gillespies Beach was alluvial or placer gold. This was eroded from hard rock over time by rivers and glaciers which helped concentrate the heavy gold into layers. As a result of this, alluvial gold deposits can be much richer than ore deposits. The gold is then mined by panning, or digging it up and dredging for it.

Some small gold deposits were found on the Coromandel Peninsula in Waikato on the North Island of New Zealand. Much larger deposits were discovered in both Otago and West Coast regions of the South Island. Throughout Otago there are museums and traces of the gold industry, with many of the settlements along the Clutha River owing their foundation to gold.

Gillespies Beach is about 20km west of Fox Glacier Township. From the car park walk north along the path in the sand dunes.