Canton battery

Named for the home province of the Chinese miners who first worked this reef, the Canton mine was worked for 35 years by several different operators.  The early miners invested a lot but gained little, and a series of later owners had similar experiences. 

Despite periodic bursts of optimism and activity, it’s likely that no-one made a sustained profit from the mine.  Flooding of the shaft was always a problem, and eventually the returns gained were insufficient to justify the capital required to keep the mine operating.

A stamping battery installed by the final owner and the remains of a water wheel mark the site of this field of dreams.

Four Chinese miners from Waipori — Quong Sing Yow, Ah Quay, Ah Long and Ah Sume — and another Waipori miner, Thomas Jones, applied for a mining lease in 1877 as the Canton Reef Company.  Canton is the old name for both the Chinese province known today as Guangdong and its capital city Guangzhou.  The Chinese miners wanted the claim to be known as ‘Lee Yik’, meaning beneficial, but that name didn’t stick and the claim was always known as the Canton.

The party set about building a water race, and by 1879 were ready to start digging a shaft down to the reef.  They failed to located the reef and despite further efforts to raise capital, by 1881 the claim was deserted.  Two years later the Canton Reef Company’s lease was cancelled and the ground made available for others to apply for.

(Otago Witness 24 November 1877)

Eaton Brothers and party took over the claim in 1888 and started work in earnest, sinking a shaft and beginning to crush the stone extracted from the underground reef.  Flooding was a problem, and soon work had to stop on digging the shaft so they could construct a water race to power pumps to remove water from the mine.  The shaft never reached the gold-bearing reef.

Later that year Long and party took over the claim before it changed hands in 1889 to Scott and Eaton, who continued work on the water pump.  It was reported that this party (also called Eaton and Scott) discovered a large and rich reef in the Canton claim in 1889, and erected a large water wheel for powering pumps to drain the mine and continued to sink a shaft.

(Tuapeka Times 1 August 1888)

In 1890 Thomas Jones, who had worked with the original Chinese miners who established the Canton claim, was back working in the mine when he was killed in an accident underground.  He is buried in Waipori cemetery but there is no headstone.

In 1890 a party of miners backed by a Sydney investment syndicate took over the Canton mine, but this effort was soon abandoned.

The next stage in the Canton mine story came when John Lawson and four Waipori miners applied to register a new claim on the Canton reef, trading as the Canton Mining Company.  Their aim was apparently to prove the mine’s value and then seek outside investment.

Additional water power was employed to pump out the mine and operate lifting gear.  Lawson registered a nearby claim called the Canton Extended, and other people lodged claims on where it was thought the Canton reef extended to underground (including one that continued the Chinese theme with the name ‘Shanghai Quartz Mining Company’).

The work by Lawson and party must have taken some time as it wasn’t until 1896 that the water was pumped out of the Canton mine “which has been standing idle so long”, according to a newspaper account.  Quartz was being extracted and crushed at Robert Cotton’s battery.  There was still no “washing up”, which would reveal how much gold the quartz contained.  Only a few men continued mining, as funding was limited.

(Otago Witness 6 August 1896)

The Canton mine was taken over by a British company (called the New Zealand Minerals Company), which also took over the nearby Otago Pioneer Quartz (OPQ) claim, but ran out of money after carrying out preliminary work and ceased operations.

There was much excitement in Waipori in early 1909 when Lewis Pearsall, who had mined in the district for nearly two decades, took over the Canton mine and planned new work.  Backed by money from Dunedin and Waipori interests and trading as the Canton Reef Quartz Mining Company, Pearsall began to pump water out of the mine and let contracts for sinking a shaft and digging underground drives.  By the end of the year very rich finds were being reported.  “There is every indication of the reef being a permanent and very rich one”, said one report from October 1909.

(Tuapeka Times 17 February 1909)

Not so fast.  The directors of the company visited from Dunedin in the same month, arriving by motor car it was reported, and after inspecting the mine closed it “until arrangements are made for further development of the property on a much larger scale”.  Optimism remained, and the company was seeking the additional capital needed for further developing the mine.

In 1910 work continued on the vertical shaft and horizontal drives, and plans were made to acquire a stamping battery to crush rock from the mine.  Despite the earlier optimism, by later in the year the company directors were considering liquidating the company.  A lot of money had been spent, but “the prospects were not regarded as too encouraging”.

The company and all its equipment were put up for auction in September 1910 but failed to meet the reserve price of £200.  Richard John (Dick) Cotton bought the claim and water races for £50 and the plant privately for an undisclosed sum.  Dick was the son of Robert Cotton, an early Waipori pioneer with interests in farming, mining and local businesses, and Dick had been involved with many other mining ventures at Waipori.

(Tuapeka Times 3 September 1910)

So another company had lost money on the Canton mine, and a further operator was prepared to have a go.  “Mr Cotton is quite confident that a full measure of success will attend his operations”, one newspaper reported.

Dick Cotton got a team of men to work led by a mine manager, digging out stone from down in the mine.  In late 1910 he purchased the stamping battery from the old Victory quartz mine at Waipori with the intention of moving it to the Canton mine, and just a few months later it was reported that the battery at the Canton was already crushing stone.  The battery was steam-powered, which was very expensive in terms of fuel, but there were plans to change this to water power — though periodic water shortages afflicted the Waipori field.

Work continued during 1910 and 1911, but with only a few workers and the battery running at intervals as there was insufficient rock being excavated to run it continuously.  In 1911 a South African company was reported to be interested in further developing the mine, but nothing seems to have become of this.  The last record of the mine operating was in 1912.

The Canton battery

The Canton battery today

One of the few remaining visible relics of the Waipori goldfield, the Canton battery is located on the south side of Mitchell’s Flat close to the Waitahuna-Waipori Road.

It is part of the Otago Pioneer Quartz (OPQ) Complex, which has been designated a category 1 historic place by Heritage New Zealand (formerly the New Zealand Historic Places Trust). The land is stewardship land administered by the Department of Conservation.