Victoria Battery Cyanide Tank Holders

Pukekauri Road, WAIKINO

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This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1980. This report includes the text from the original Building Classification Committee report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. The Victoria Battery complex at Waikino was built in 1897, to process ore being produced at the Martha, Waihi and Grand Junction mines. The MacArthur-Forrest cyanide process for the extraction of gold and silver from crushed ores was developed in Scotland in 1886. The patent was owned by the Cassel Gold Extraction Company. In 1889 the Crown Company of Karangahake carried out the first field trials of the process by which 92% of the gold and 54% of the silver content of the ore was recovered, in contrast to the 60% of the gold and 3570 of the silver which was recovered by the previous pan amalgamation process. In 1897 the New Zealand Government purchased the patent rights for the process for £10,000. This money had been recouped by 1905 from the small royalty charged to the users. The local invention in 1902 of the Brown (or B and M) agitator tanks (known in some countries as Pachuca tanks), facilitated this increase in the extraction rate. The process involved cylindrical tanks in which the mix of pulverised ore and cyanide solution was agitated by charges of compressed air forced through the inverted conical bases. This air also provided a supply of - oxygen which further improved the extraction of the metals. The tanks which were built at the Victoria Battery between 1902 and 1910, were steel cylinders 4.5 metres in diameter and about 15.25 metres high which stood on the concrete holders or bases remaining at the site. Elsewhere tanks were made of wood or concrete. A spectacular set of concrete tanks survives at the Union Hill, Waihi.

Victoria Battery Cyanide Tank Holders, Waikino. CC BY-SA 2.0 Image courtesy of www.flickr.com | gérard | 17/03/2017 | gérard
Victoria Battery Cyanide Tank Holders, Waikino. CC BY 2.0 Image courtesy of www.flickr.com | Vishal Makwana | 01/01/2023 | Vishal Makwana
Victoria Battery Cyanide Tank Holders, Waikino. CC BY 2.0 Image courtesy of www.flickr.com | Natalia Volna - itravelNZ® | 21/07/2012 | Natalia Volna
Victoria Battery Cyanide Tank Holders, Waikino. Image courtesy of www.flickr.com | Derek Smith - travelling-light | 02/07/2005 | Derek Smith

Location

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List Entry Information

Overview

Detailed List Entry

Status

Listed

List Entry Status

Historic Place Category 1

Access

Able to Visit

List Number

4678

Date Entered

6th June 1990

Date of Effect

6th June 1990

City/District Council

Hauraki District

Region

Waikato Region

Legal description

Sec 1 SO 59644 Blk XIV Ohinemuri SD Rec Res

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