Christmas Shopping 'On the Move'
Waihi's Gold Story - Get to the Bottom of it
The Cornish Pumphouse has been in place at the new site for just over a year. Since then the area has seen much activity to help the old lady settle in to her new surroundings. Plantings, lighting, walkways ... soon some signage. Now it's all looking great and lots of people are enjoying the results.
Newmont Waihi Gold is now about to relocate something else! The Golden Legacy Centre concept - along with Doreen McLeod - is to be re-established within the Waihi Visitor Centre building opposite the pumphouse at the top of Seddon Street. The move will help to provide an enhanced experience for local people and for visitors to the area to enjoy. We're calling the new centre Waihi's Gold Story - Get to the Bottom of It.
Visitors will be drawn down the stairs to the mine interpretation centre with completely new and innovative displays that will tell our story - past, present and future. We have installed half a tyre from a Caterpillar 777C dump truck. A stereoscope will provide 3D views of the Martha Mine. There are touchscreens for interactive learning and an underground mine for kids. And, of course, there are rock samples and lots of other information and displays.
We're opening in mid December. Come along and check it out!
Gold Movements
Three articles have caught the eye of Waihi Gold staff over recent weeks.
The 'World's Most Expensive Dessert' has made it into the Guinness Book of Records. The US$25,000 chocolate sundae creation called the 'Frrrozen Haute Chocolate' is a blend of 28 of the world's most expensive and exotic cocoas. The sundae is sprinkled with 0.2 oz of 23 carat gold, served in a goblet lined with edible gold, and eaten with a gold spoon that the diner gets to keep.
If your appetite is still not satisfied, another supplier is now offering gold dipped capsules filled with 24 carat gold leaf. For US$425 you can purchase three capsules and 'turn your innermost parts into chambers of wealth'.
Gold is completely neutral in the body and is safe to eat. We have yet to imagine why you would want to.
At the other end of the story, there are reports from the town of Daluatang in southern China that small processing plants have discovered gold filings in the septic tanks of jewellery factories. The filings have either been washed off workers hands or faces or accidentally ingested. Collectors are paying to access the contents of the septic tanks that are then sifted and panned. Building owners are selling the right to collect their sewage for up to NZ$25,000 a year. With gold currently trading at over NZ$1,000 an ounce, the trade remains highly profitable.
It might be profitable, but our staff will be sticking to conventional mining methods.
