![]() The site had several earlier dredging operations. The dredge was operational from 1992 to 2004 across 220 hectares achieving around 55 000 ounces of gold. It is known as the Grey River or Birchfield dredge, with Birchfield purchasing the dredge in 1992 from the Grey River Gold Mining Ltd. Its new mining licence had been hard fought, opposed by conservation groups, and government departments worried about fish stocks in the Grey River.Äredging has not always been environmentally friendly in the past, although various areas have been rehabilitated back to dairy pasture, and you would be hard pressed to tell mining was once conducted on the land.Ä«irchfield is a local family owned mining business, their dredging lease at the confluence of the Grey River, with Ford and Blackball Creeks. Its been idle for several years, but as of 2017 when this was written was for sale. Said to be the last bucket ladder operational gold dredge in the southern hemisphere. Sitting in a pond on the alluvial bearing flats by the Grey River outside Blackball, is Birchfield's World War Two era dredge.
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