Burbanks Gold Mine (Baker-Burbanks), Coolgardie, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Burbanks Gold Mine (Baker-Burbanks)	Mine
Coolgardie	City
Coolgardie Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Located 9 km south of Coolgardie.
Latitude: -31.0051
Longitude: 121.1867
Coordinates: 326889mE, 6568422mN.
References: Minedex Database 2006.

This is called the Burbanks Gold Mine, rather than Baker-Burbanks Mine. The mine is south of Coolgardie, near the Londonderry pegmatite, from where many specimens have come.

It was named after W. Burbanks, who with his mate called Sheldon, discovered gold here in 1894. I have been wondering if Sheldon's surname is Baker, but have been unable to confirm.

Mining occurred here between 1894-1914, producing 400 000oz of gold, and is considered the highest grade gold mine in Australia at the time, at 22.7 grams of gold per tonne.

The mine sprang to life again in the early 1950's, mined by Western Mining Corporation, but closed again in 1991.

In 2006, Barra Resources purchased the mine, and opened an underground mine
from the existing Lady Robinson Pit but closed in 2007. During this short period, 249 000oz of gold was mined. In 2009, Barra Resources discovered a deposit at the mine which amounted to one of the highest grade gold deposits in Australia's history at 10 300 grams of gold per tonne. As you could imagine, the mine was quickly re-opened. The ore is processed at a plant owned by Ramelius Resources, which also processes ore from the Wattle Dam Mine.

A Professor Nicholas, who was once a mine manager at Burbanks, invented aspro. In June 1897, John Mitchell and John Paull set out in horse and buggy with 723 pounds of sterling to pay the workers at the Burbank Mine. They were attacked by a group of bushrangers, who tied them to a tree. They were rescued soon after, but the bushrangers were never caught or money recovered.

The mine lies on the eastern limb of a regional anticline, close to the Tindal's cross fold axis. The host sequence is a north-east trending, south-east dipping series of mafic lavas, ultramafic rocks, and interbedded sediments, intruded by felsic porphyries. Historically gold was mined by plastically (squiggly) folded, north-east trending quartz reefs, in a horizon in massive mafic volcanics.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References