YOUR POUNAMU Greenstone HISTORY

INANGA (Inaka in Southern Dialect)A grey-green colour. It is either very translucent or quite opaque. Highly prized by the Maori and the desired material for making mere and patu.

KAHURANGIA highly translucent, lightish green shade, free from dark spots and other flaws. One of the rarest varieties, held in high esteem by the Maori.

KAWAKAWAA dark rich green with varying intermediate shades, named after the leaf of the Kawakawa. It is the main type used in gem purposes.

TANGIWAIA translucent to transparent olive green to bluishgreen variety of serpentine known as bowentine. Often known as Koko-Tangiwai.

AUHUNGAA pale green opaque variety, given as the intermediate of Inanga and Kawakawa.

KAHOTEAA type streaked or flecked with white. The name Kahotea derives from Kaho, meaning light-coloured tea (white or clear).

KOKOPUAlso known as trout-stone named after the dark brown, olive green and yellowish markings found on the three species of the native freshwater trout.

RAUKARAKAThis is the term used by the Maori of the Cook Strait region of the Kawakawa variety that is streaked with a shade of olive green.

WESTLAND JADe GUIDE

MAP OF WESTLAND

Twelve Mile

6425

3125

30257453

3050

78736090

4752

Whitcombe River

Diedrichs Creek

Hokitika Gorge

Hokitika River

Toaroha River

Kokatahi River

Lake KaniereMilltown

Kawhaka

Awatuna

Stafford

Styx River

Taipo River

Cropp River

5726Harper Pass

Lake Brunner

Mitchells

Inchbonnie

Greenstone

Hohonu

Jacksons

Olderog Creek

Griffin CreekGoldsborough Wainihinihi Creek

Browning Pass

MarsdenNew River

Rimu

Arahura

GREYMOUTH

ROSS

HOKITIKA

DUNGANVILLE

KUMARATARAMAKAU RIVER

TARAMAKAU RIVER

OTIRA

ARTHUR’S PASSARAHURA RIVER INANGA

KAHURANGI

KAWAKAWA

KAWAKAWA

TANGIWAI

TANGIWAI

AUHUNGA

KAHOTEA

KOKOPU RAUKARAKA

A GUIDE TO GREENSTONE

What is Greenstone and how did it get its name?‘Pounamu’ is the Maori name for Greenstone. It is the God stone of our Maori people, along with Serpentine and other closely related stones of the Amphibole group of minerals.

It is hugely significant for Maori, for it was often used as a seal for transfers of title, the Greenstone ‘taonga’ or treasure taking the place of a document as proof and sale of land.

When Captain Cook first discovered New Zealand in 1769 he noticed the Maori working a green coloured stone. It’s thought that this is where the name ‘Greenstone’ originated from.

In fact the name ‘Greenstone’ is a slang term. Its correct mineral name is “Nephrite” (pronounced nef ’-rite). It is an extremely tough stone made up of interwoven fibres that will actually bend before breaking. Even then the parts have to be pulled apart.

Nephrite is found in many parts of the world but New Zealand Greenstone is being particularly unique because of its vast range of colour variations between the main varieties..

It is hugely significant for maori, for it was often used as a seal for transfers of title, the greenstone ‘taonga’ or treasure taking the place of a document as proof and sale of land.

Pounamu is one of the world’s strongest materials. It can cut down trees and through centuries. It can break granite and shape destinies.

The Physical Creation of New Zealand Greenstone Greenstone is a metamorphic rock formed through tremendous heat and pressure. It is found throughout Westland’s alluvial glacial moraines. The main historical gathering places are between Greymouth and Hokitika. Just where certain varieties and types of stone originated from, remain a mystery, locked away in a distant past, when all was upthrust and under ice.

Bands of Pounamu formations, which tend to run in a North Easterly direction, consist mainly of Serpentine, Dunite and similar Olivine rock, Serpentine talc formations and actinolite. The addition of other combinations, with a mixture of minerals, accounts for why these formations are often referred to as a mineral belt.

The nephritic variety of Jade is often called ‘the true Jade’. It must not be confused with jadeite which is a trifle harder, has a higher specific gravity, and is a silicate of alumina and soda. Jadeite is found near the village of Tamaw, five days journey from Mogung in upper Burma, near the Chinese border. It is either a white to green colour or white with green splashes of colour, often rich in magnificent tints.

THE LINK WITH GOLD“Gold fever” drove men from all over the world to their physical, emotional and spiritual limits. Willing to suffer great hardships for the yellow metal, these men would live on scarce rations. In Westland this would often consist of a weka, or a pigeon and some manuka tea. Those that struck it rich however, may have been hungry at times but they left the land with a smile, happy memories, and the gold.

NEW ZEALAND JADE

A GUIDE TO GREENSTONE

Greenstone was often cast aside for the golden treasure apparently not wanted, and the land lay forsaken and forlorn for many years. Rusting hulks of iron served as a reminder of the vanished gold. Most prospectors agree that more Greenstone is found where better than average gold deposits occur. When we look at different areas, we find that certain places produce very different varieties of stone.

The first record of Greenstone found in New Zealand was in 1864, when two Maori, Simon and Samuel discovered a large Greenstone boulder in the Hohonu River, this whole area was once named Pounamu. These two prospectors can also lay claim to starting off a gold rush to this area, for when they moved the stone and watched as the water cleared, coarse gold appeared.

The areas around Marsden have produced what is generally recognised as the best Greenstone that has been found in New Zealand. It is also a place where rich gold deposits were mined during the mid-1860s.

The stone from this area is more like the Kahurangi variety. The now famous ‘flower jades’ mainly come from this district, usually completely encased in a weathered white or brownish talc-like rind.

The first recorded history of a Greenstone being found in New Zealand was in 1864, when two Maori, Simon and Samuel discovered a large Greenstone Boulder in the Hohonu River, once named Pounamu.

Marsden

Dunganville

Kaniere

Rimu

Cropp River

Styx River

Kumara

Hohonu Range

TASMAN SEA

Alpine Fault

Sout

hern

Alp

s

State Highway 73

Hokitika

Toaroha River

Milltown

Hokitika Gorge

Diedrichs Creek

Whi

tcom

be R

iver

Hoki

tika

Rive

r

Taip

o Ri

ver

Olderog Cree

k

Taramakau River

Jacksons

Lake KaniereKokatahi River

Arahura River

State Highway

6

Lake Brunner

Inchbonnie

Pounamu Intrusions

Gravels and Sedimentary Rocks

Alpine Schist

Greywacke

Granite

SEARCHING FOR GREENSTONE

There’s nothing more pleasant than a day out prospecting.

Although for the novice the best days are when it’s raining.

The most experienced like the wet days too, as dampness brings

out the colours in the stone.

Pat Thompson was another prospector from Kumara who worked on the Kanieri Gold dredge. He arrived outside my factory one day, having worked the night shift, with a stone in the boot of his car. We both went out to look, he raised the boot lid, and as soon as I saw the stone I knew it was something special.

Pat’s find was completely worn smooth, what’s known within the trade as “water washed”. I knew from the time I first saw this stone that it would never be cut like so many of the beautiful water

A STORY OF DISCOVERY

Pat Thompson – possibly the finest water worn stone in the World

worn stones were in those early years. Stones like this are rare specimens indeed.

Pat then proceeded to tell me how he had found it. He was on the “back shift” as they called it, working all night under lights with screaming noises from steel on steel, such a hell of a din. These dredges could be heard for miles and they never stopped. It was overcast and drizzly, the clouds opening up to reveal the moon occasionally. It was at one of these moments that Pat caught a glimpse of the stone, wet and

gleaming green, riding on the top of a bucket full of wash, in the stacker on the way to the tailings dump.

He rushed to shut down the bucket line, threw the switch, raced back to grab the stone and dumped it on the deck. He then hurried back to switch on the stacker again. The whole activity was completed within a minute! This wasn’t the first time Pat had done this. It was a dicey act, for if the bucket line was stopped for long, sediments and gravels could cause the buckets to become almost cemented to the face.

This made it very difficult to restart and was not permitted unless great logs were likely to be caught or jammed. It was, however, an instant decision from a dedicated Greenstone man, thinking only of the stone and of nothing else. That’s how these treasures are retrieved, with luck, desperation and a burning desire to secure a gem.

The dredge was digging at a depth of 18 metres, but it is difficult to know the exact level at which the stone was dislodged. It had moon shaped scales on its surface, a sure sign of a perfect stone. It also had a streak of the Totoweka, (the red colour rarely found in Greenstone). I have shown this stone to the late Dr Rodger Duff, and in his opinion, it was the finest Greenstone he had seen.

The bucket line often got jammed when old logs got caught up in the works. On another night the line became completely jammed with logs and huge boulders. The logs and stones were rolled off onto the deck and left there. The night shift had, had a time of it. Exhausted, they left the debris of logs and stones for the day shift to clear. Normally everything would be cast off over the side into the pond, anything to get the dredge working again.

Pat Thompson with his find. Weight: 30.5kg

Photo: Mrs Thompson

Next morning, the hoses were played onto the deck as the washing down commenced. The hose was directed to a huge stone and a shout went up that it was a Greenstone. The Manager was informed but by the next day, the stone had disappeared. The word was that it had been sold to Jim Staples, who had friends in the right places.

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