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Story: Gold and gold mining

School of mines furnaces

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School of mines furnaces

A worker at the Otago School of Mines conducts assay work in the school’s furnace room in 1949. The school was one of three in the country (the others were at Reefton and Waihī). Schools of mines trained young men (in Otago there were only 2 women graduates in over a century) in the science of mining and mineral extraction. None remain; the Otago School of Mines was moved to Auckland in 1986, but it did not last and those wanting to study mineral technology must now go to Australia.

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Hocken Collections, University of Otago

Permission of the Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, must be obtained before any re-use of this image. Further information may be obtained from the Library through its website.

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How to cite this page

Carl Walrond, Gold and gold mining – Gold and the economy, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/8658/school-of-mines-furnaces (accessed 24 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 2 March 2009.