Gold was discovered in Molega in June of 1886. The name of the discoverer is lost to time. The gold was mostly mined by individual miners with a few larger comanies ming the area. The Molega Mining Company and the Boston Mining company were the main operations in the area. The majority of gold mines was found in quartz seams and pulled from the ground and broken up with hand tool. Backbreaking labour but profitable for the successful miners. As the veins started to run out, larger operations mived in and bought up the claims. These companies used large scale machinery to process the ore making the mines economically viable for a while longer. Winches pulled the buckets of ore up out of the ground, stamping mills replaced hand crushing and sluice plants replaced panning.
The gold in molega was particularly coarse which made it easier to recover, making it both valuable and easily stolen by unscrupulous miners. Many mines were operated by a consortium and would hire staff to run the mine equipment. larger grains could be hidden by miners working
the mine to sneak out later.
The gold mining ended in 1950 with a total of 33, 460 ounces of gold officially recovered. The mine equipment can still be found where the forest has reclaimed the area, but there are many open abandoned mine pits to trap the unwary. The Government has attempted to map and place signs at many of the abandoned mines, but people who were working without buying a claim would not have a registered mine making the area dangerous to explore.
