Background

Lime and Marble Limited was founded in New Zealand by the late T.J. (Tas) McKee OBE and his family in 1935. The Company had its base in the high grade marble deposits on Takaka Hill, and was also shipping crushed limestone to the Auckland glass works, and supplying burnt lime for industry.

Development from this non-metallic base took place with exploration for other minerals, and in the mid-1950s uranium was discovered in the Buller Gorge. Exploration expanded during the 1960s into oil and gas and metallic minerals. Two significant events during this time were the commencement of a large metallic exploration joint venture with Asarco in 1967, and the formation of the public oil exploration company L & M Oil (NZ) Limited in 1969, in which Lime and Marble held 54%.

After a large scale geochemical programme over New Zealand, gold became the focus of further work as the price was expected to be released from the pegged US$35 per ounce. L&M Oil was unsuccessful in the offshore oil search and attention turned to onshore Taranaki in a joint venture with Aquitaine, Shell, BP and Todd. The gas and condensate discovery at Urenui in 1972 was not commercial at that time, but further seismic surveys identified the McKee structure which had been named after Tas McKee. Casing had been bought to drill the well, but the Government refused to renew the licences after the oil shocks of 1973.

Following the exclusion from Taranaki and a final unsuccessful offshore well, L&M had to look hard at its future direction and in late 1978 evaluation commenced on some alluvial gold areas in Otago and Southland. Discussions also commenced with Jack and Barney Ryan of Christchurch regarding their claims on the Shotover and Kawarau Rivers near Queenstown.

L&M Mining's alluvial gold mining career spans 1981 to 2002 in New Zealand's South Island which has produced 15.3 million ounces of alluvial gold since 1860. L&M has successfully recovered more than 340,000 ounces of gold from many parts of New Zealand's Otago, West Coast and Queenstown regions, using a variety of locally developed dredges which feature a number of unique innovations. These innovations have allowed development of previously uneconomical deposits both in New Zealand and more recently in South America.

Starting in 1981 at 1,500 ounces, production gradually built up to about 30,000 ounces annually. At mid 2001 prices, the 20 years has produced exports valued at NZ $215million. L&M Mining was New Zealand’s largest alluvial gold miner and an important export earner.