Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
This huge dredge, one of the biggest in the world lies abandoned on the Grey River on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
Allan Birchfield is the owner of the Kanieri, the last gold dredge operating on the West Coast and the largest remaining alluvial bucket gold dredge in the world.
The 3,500 tonnes (3,900 tons) dredge was built in 1938 to work the Kaniere area, and recovered 175,000 ounces (5,000 kg) of gold from around Hokitika and 202,000 ounces (5,700 kg) from the Taramakau River before stopping operation in 1978.
It was salvaged and rebuilt by US company R.A. Hanson Co. (also known as RAHCO) in 1989, who went into receivership eight months later.
The dredge was purchased by Birchfield Minerals in August 1992 and ran at Ngahere, 22 kilometres (14 mi) inland from Greymouth, until 2004 before being mothballed as unprofitable.
It restarted operation in 2009 with a NZ$2.2 million loan from Development West Coast, mining the Grey River flats near Blackball and ran until 2012, when falling gold prices and resource consents led to it being mothballed again.
In 2013 Birchfield successfully defended eight charges by the Department of Conservation of undertaking commercial gold mining without authority and damaging conservation land at Blackball and the Grey River.
In 2016, then 65, he announced he was retiring from gold mining and put the dredge up for sale, but it remains in storage at his Ngahere property. He continues to work an alluvial gold claim south of Greymouth and in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 he argued gold mining should continue as an essential service.
He petitioned then-Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage to allow alluvial gold mining on Department of Conservation land
Track: Brian Rian Rehan - Dark
Music provided by Brian Rian Rehan
Watch: • Brian Rian Rehan - Dark
Free Download / Stream: brianrianrehan.fanlink.to/DARK
This huge dredge, one of the biggest in the world lies abandoned on the Grey River on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
Allan Birchfield is the owner of the Kanieri, the last gold dredge operating on the West Coast and the largest remaining alluvial bucket gold dredge in the world.
The 3,500 tonnes (3,900 tons) dredge was built in 1938 to work the Kaniere area, and recovered 175,000 ounces (5,000 kg) of gold from around Hokitika and 202,000 ounces (5,700 kg) from the Taramakau River before stopping operation in 1978.
It was salvaged and rebuilt by US company R.A. Hanson Co. (also known as RAHCO) in 1989, who went into receivership eight months later.
The dredge was purchased by Birchfield Minerals in August 1992 and ran at Ngahere, 22 kilometres (14 mi) inland from Greymouth, until 2004 before being mothballed as unprofitable.
It restarted operation in 2009 with a NZ$2.2 million loan from Development West Coast, mining the Grey River flats near Blackball and ran until 2012, when falling gold prices and resource consents led to it being mothballed again.
In 2013 Birchfield successfully defended eight charges by the Department of Conservation of undertaking commercial gold mining without authority and damaging conservation land at Blackball and the Grey River.
In 2016, then 65, he announced he was retiring from gold mining and put the dredge up for sale, but it remains in storage at his Ngahere property. He continues to work an alluvial gold claim south of Greymouth and in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 he argued gold mining should continue as an essential service.
He petitioned then-Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage to allow alluvial gold mining on Department of Conservation land
Track: Brian Rian Rehan - Dark
Music provided by Brian Rian Rehan
Watch: • Brian Rian Rehan - Dark
Free Download / Stream: brianrianrehan.fanlink.to/DARK
