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Enjoy your Waihi holiday in one of our modern, recently refurbished rooms.
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Waihi Motel is just 100m from Waihi’s great shops, restaurants, cafes and bars.
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Waihi has a long history of gold mining! Explore the open-pit Martha Mine!
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Waihi’s Gold Mines
Waihi, known affectionately as New Zealand’s Heart of Gold, has a long history of gold mining, including an active exploration team and two operational gold mines.
The Martha Mine (Waihi’s well-known mine) is an open-pit mine, which has been operating since 1987, with underground mining dating back to the 1880s. Every year around 250 staff and contractors mine 100,000 ounces of gold and 700,000 ounces of silver. Due to the huge size of this open mine, and the amazing look-outs and tours offered to visitors, the site has become a focus of great interest for tourists from New Zealand and overseas. The Martha Mine is easy walking distance to Waihi Motel.
Favona Mine, just out of Waihi town centre, is a less well-known underground mine, declining 300m down. Gold is found by extracting ore from stopes. The mine is accessed by a five metre by five metre decline. Exploration of this area began in 2004.
Waihi Gold Mine Tours
If you would like to explore the Martha Mine, book a tour with Waihi Gold Mine Tours – the only way to experience the depths of the Martha open-pit mine! During your tour you’ll be kitted out with safety gear and taken down in the tour van, stopping off at some of the best available vantage points. Here you’ll follow the mining process and learn all the fun facts and figures that make Martha Mine so interesting. If you would like to book a Waihi Gold Mine Tour, contact Waihi Motel reception – we can book the tour on your behalf!
The Gold Mining Process
There are seven steps to the gold mining process, all of which are carried out at both Martha and Favona Mines. The gold under Waihi was formed over millions of years of volcanic eruptions and erosion. Gold is found through core drilling samples, testing the earth below. When rock has been excavated, waste rock is separated from ore (gold) and the ore is sent to be crushed and is delivered to the ore processing plant. At the processing plant the ore goes through a range of processes, leaving an end result of a 99% pure mix of gold and silver bullion. When the furnace reaches approximately 1100 degrees Celsius, the material is poured into moulds, to form dore bullion bars. Weighing 20kg, each bar contains around 10-15% gold and 85-90% silver.
The steps that follow include waste disposal and environmental care. The waste rock is used to form embankment structures, to ensure the stability of the tailings which are stored at the waste disposal area. The tailing is a mixture that includes the slurry that is left when the gold and silver have been extracted from the crushed ore. Because mining uses a lot of water, the mines recycle and reuse as much water as possible. The waste water is treated at a plant and discharged into the Ohinemuri River. Water is tested regularly in the river, along with other tests including noise levels, atmospheric dust levels and blast vibration. These tests ensure that a clean, green way of life is maintained for the residents of Waihi and visitors to the area.
Martha Mine to become a lake
In the future, when mining and rehabilitation of the Martha Mine is complete, the mine will close, allowing for the open-pit to become a recreational lake.
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