Detector Maps
Start free for 3 days on any yearly plan — nothing charged until the trial ends.
Pan legally, no permit
New Zealand has designated gold fossicking areas — public ground where you can pan, sluice and detect for gold without a permit. Detector Maps maps every one, with the access and boundaries around it.
Four ways prospectors put it to work
Pan without a permit
Designated public areas open to everyone.
Exact boundaries
Know precisely where the area starts and ends.
Great for starting out
The easiest, legal way to get your first colour.
Access mapped
Tracks, parking and boundaries around each area.
Public gold, mapped
Gold fossicking areas
Pan legally, no permit.
Public access land
Where you can go.
Paths & tracks
How to get there.
Waterfalls & rivers
Where placer runs.
Fossicking questions, straight answers.
A designated public area where anyone can pan, sluice and metal-detect for gold without a permit — set aside by the Crown and councils.
No permit for hand tools in a fossicking area — but always read the local rules for each area.
It’s the legal, low-friction way to start detecting and panning for gold in NZ.
Every designated fossicking area across New Zealand.
Explore the other layers.
Mining permitsKnow whose ground you're on.Explore →
Surface geochemistrySoil, stream & rock assays.Explore →
Bedrock geologySchist, host rocks & structure.Explore →
Gold occurrencesStart where gold's come out.Explore →
1-metre LiDARSee under the bush.Explore →
Access & conservationDOC land, tracks & boundaries.Explore →
Layers that pair with fossicking
Prospect smarter, not harder. Built in Queensland.
Community
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