Oroya Mine, Sandstone, Sandstone Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Oroya Mine	Mine (Abandoned)
Sandstone	- not defined -
Sandstone Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Oroya Gold Mine is 500 metres east of the Sandstone townsite, and is marked by a north-south abandoned open pit, developed by Herald Resources in the 1990's. Remnant battery sands are just south of the pit, and the tailings to the east.

In 1903, George Dent and the Hack brothers discovered gold just south of the present Sandstone town site. A few days later Tom Payne (after whom Paynes Find is named) discovered gold at the Oroya site. Payne sold the mine to the Oyoya Black Range Company Ltd, who worked the mine until 1914. During this period it yielded 364,000 ounces, and was the pre-eminent mine in the district.

On ANZAC Day 1932, lone miner, Samuel Ure became trapped in the old workings by a fall of earth. Jack Tetlow, Jimmy Boase and Billy Pease launched a rescue effort, however a few metres from Samuel were almost trapped by another fall of earth. Despite a concerted effort, rock continued to fall and the rescue effort had to be abandoned. A properly equipped team then spent one week trying to retrieve the body without success, and he remains buried somewhere in the old workings.

The mine is located on part of the Sandstone Reef. Drilling by Western Mining Ltd before the Herald mine identified several Hanging Wall structures, and a broader alteration halo from the main reef. At the time, the resource was estimated to hold 336 000 tonnes of ore at 4.29 g/t, and a laterite resource of 186,000 tonnes at 4.0 g/t (0.5 g/t cut-off).

The mine is located in the Sandstone Greenstone Belt, a triangular north plunging antiform, at the conjunction of the major trans-cratonic Youanmi and Edale Faults. The greenstone belt consists of mafic volcanic and intrusive rocks with subordinate ultramafics, banded iron formation and siliclastic sediments. Granitoid plutons associated with the Diemals Dome intrude the southern margin of the belt.

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