Looking for gold in gold fossicking areas
There are specific gold fossicking areas in the South Island where you don’t need to have a permit to fossick or pan for gold. There are no fossicking areas in the North Island. If you want to fossick or pan for gold elsewhere, you will need a gold mining permit.
What gold fossicking is
Gold fossicking is the activity of collecting gold by a stream or river using metal detectors, pans, shovels, picks and sluice boxes. In gold fossicking areas, anyone is free to look for gold as long as you use non-motorised machinery and hand tools.
You can fossick for gold in specific areas in the South Island only
There are 19 areas in the South Island that have been set aside for gold fossicking and gold panning in Nelson-Marlborough, the West Coast and South and Central Otago. These areas are open for recreational gold fossicking without the need for a permit.
Alluvial gold, which is found in soil and sediments around rivers and streams, is present in all gold fossicking areas but usually in low concentrations.
There are no public fossicking areas in the North Island and no plans to open any because the North Island does not have any large historical alluvial goldfields.
The 19 gold fossicking areas
Information about the gold fossicking areas can be found in the table below.
| Fossicking area | Permit number | Operator |
|---|---|---|
|
Tasman area |
||
|
42012 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
|
55529 |
Tasman District Council |
|
|
42013 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
| Aorere River B (GFA 14) [PDF 199KB] | 42014 | New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
| New Creek (GFA 15) [PDF 205KB] | 42015 | New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
West Coast region |
||
|
42004 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
|
42005 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
|
42006 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
|
42007 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
|
42010 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
|
42011 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
|
42030 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
| Moonlight Creek [PDF 456KB] | 42031 | Department of Conservation |
| Shamrock Creek [PDF 717KB] | 53804 | New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
Otago |
||
|
42020 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
|
42021 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
|
42022 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
|
42023 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
|
42033 |
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals |
|
Looking for gold outside the gold fossicking areas
You cannot fossick or pan for gold in any other area outside of the specific gold fossicking areas.
If you want to look for gold in any area outside of these specific fossicking areas you will need to apply for a mining permit – this includes on your own land as gold is owned by the Crown.
Before applying for a permit, you need to check whether the area you wish to apply for is available for permitting. You can see this information on our Permit Webmaps. If the area is already covered by a permit or an application it’s probably not available. If the area you are interested in is available for permitting, you will need to submit an application.
A mining permit application costs $5,750 to apply for and there are fees payable each year to continue to hold the permit.
Further information
- Applying for a new permit
- Permit Webmaps
- Supporting information for applying for an alluvial gold or quarry mining permit – guide [PDF 423KB] [PDF 423KB]
- Supporting information for applying for an alluvial gold or quarry mining permit – template [DOCX 398KB] [DOCX 398KB]