Goodenough Gold Mine (Lusitania), Menzies, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Goodenough Gold Mine (Lusitania)	Mine
Menzies	- not defined -
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Goodenough Gold Mine is 6 kilometres north-east of Menzies, and can be located by taking the gravel road east of the centre of town, then the left fork, until a cleared area is reached. A head frame remains over the main shaft. (Climbing any of these structures on the Goldfields is not recommended, as rust could see the metal collapse at any stage when stood on.)

Underground mining began on the oxide ore from 1897 to 1906, producing 4519 tonnes of ore at 42.82 g/t yielding 4282 ounces of gold. Intermittent mining then occurred to 1969 producing 6331 tonnes at 10.97 g/t for 2232 ounces. Lastly 1981 to 1984 8478 tonnes at 7.16 g/t for 1955 ounces. All has been conducted as underground mining, apart from an open cut by the original prospectors. The lower grade for the last mining period was due to development and a wide width of mining leading to a dilution of grades.

The original prospectors from 1897 were the Featherstonehaugh brothers, who worked the mine for a number of years from an open cut and shallow shaft. Around 1905, it was sold to the Queensland Menzies Company for 3500 pounds.

In 1907, all employees were sacked and the mine closed. The company came under sharp criticism. The directors had not allocated enough money to properly develop the mine. The battery was removed from the Queensland Menzies mine and re-erected at the Goodenough at world record pace. The battery then fell apart due to shoddy workmanship in the rush to erect it. The tramway was built from inferior materials and also became un-operational. Mill manager, Belman, was sacked for suggesting the mine was low grade, then black banned from getting another job in the Menzies area. It was claimed the underground manager, Myers, was distracted as director of the Menzies Prospecting and Development Company. The boarding house burned down in a fire.

The mine manager, Duncan (surname), travelled to Brisbane to recommend greater investment into the mine. Instead the company went into liquidation. Duncan then purchased the mine, and it was briefly re-named the Lusitania. Within two years it was on tribute.

Around 1912, the Herley brothers took over, but little work was done. In 1913, Leedman and Caddy took over, un-watered the shaft and placed the property up for sale. The following year, W. Martin took the lease. The mine then entered many decades of prospector ownership with little more than sampling and pottering done.

Modern exploration started in the 1960's, although mainly for nickel. Jones Mining sank a shaft in 1981, and conducted underground mining until 1984. They surrendered the lease in 1989. George Vujcich then took over the lease. The Kalgoorlie Gnamma Hole Syndicate purchased it in 1994.

The deposit is a narrow high grade ore zone. The mine is located on the hinge of a broad regional synform structure, with a shallow south-west plunge. Gold is hosted in a siliceous pyritic horizon, at the contact between the felsic Footwall and mafic Hanging Wall metavolcanics.

The main ore zone dips 35 degrees south. The underground workings are found on a parasitic fold structure in the major hinge zone. Other small workings in the area are associated with a well developed north-east trending fault system, that cuts the main horizon 250 metres west from the main shaft headframe.

The Hanging Wall mafic consists of a series of fine to medium grained metabasalts and metadolerites. The Footwall is a sequence of interlayered rhyolite volcanics and undifferentiated felsic to intermediate volcanics, with associated volcaniclastics, occurring as sericite fuchsite schists.

The ore horizon contains quartz-pyrite-pyrrhotite in a shear zone within carbonaceous shale, chert, and tuffaceous sediments. It outcrops as a continuous gossanous hematite chert for over 1 kilometre in length.

The underlying sequence is a sulphidic rich fine to medium grained ultramafic, volcanic rocks and volcaniclastic sediments. A number of dykes from porphyry to aplite intrude the area, but contain low grade gold with fine pyrite.

References

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