Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	30° 35' 45'' South , 121° 36' 47'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-30.59606,121.61325
GeoHash:	G#: qdw3zqhj1
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BSh : Hot semi-arid (steppe) climate

Today Red Hill is a modern, water filled abandoned open pit on the eastern edge of the goldfield, and directly north of the former town site.

Red Hill is near the site of the original nugget discovery here by Jerry McAuliffe in 1893. It developed as an alluvial ground, before reefs were found in the adjacent rise called Red Hill. Several leases were developed here, like the Melba, Bulong United, Kanowna, Kintore from the 1890's to very early 1900's. As such Red Hill also refers to an area historically of several leases. In the 1920's, the Red Hill Gold Mining Company took over many of the leases, but focussed its main attention on the Gentle Polly lease, one of the richest historically in this area. The Red Hill name became paramount in labelling mining in this area as a whole.

Gold was found in flat, undulating quartz leaders dipping slightly north-east. It was a succession of leaders, dipping below one another. The best veins were described as in the arching or dome like portions, where small veins come in from the roof. Small amounts of pyrite, chalcopyrite and galena are found in the quartz veins, the galena often associated with the gold. The country rock was hard quartzite, limiting hand mining to no more than 100 feet depth, and reducing profitability of early efforts.

As the Gentle Polly lease, it is first found in 1902, owned by McBride and Ritchie (surnames). By 1904, the lease is in the hands of a syndicate of Kanowna working miners. They were active from 1904 to 1907 producing 9032 ounces of gold worth over 32 000 pounds. 'Watty' Bailey was one of the principal holders until he sold his quarter interest to F (D?). Morgan in 1904. Lancaster (surname) is registered against crushings. David Morgan is mine manager. GML 1062X.

Intermittent crushings emanate from the lease over the next ten years. The Victoria G.M. Co. take over the lease at the beginning of 1918 but do little with it, despite promises of introducing machine drills, and appointing J. Pascoe as mine manager.

In 1920, D.L. Doolette obtained a working option over several leases at Red Hill from the Red Hill Syndicate for 5500 pounds. The syndicate itself had produced a large tonnage from development work. The Red Hill Gold Mining Company NL is formed in Melbourne, but registered on the Adelaide stock exchange. Initially the property was let to tributers until 1923, when the company took over mining operations. John James is mine manager. Capital was 100 000 pounds.

The mine limped along producing crushings of moderate values initially, and gradually decreasing. April 1928 the company was voluntarily wound up. Low gold grades and increased costs were blamed. It had produced gold worth 45 568 pounds, produced dividends of 6883 pounds, paid wages of 20 106 pounds. After debts were paid, 40 pounds was left, which was donated to two hospitals.

As the Gentle Polly lease, the mine in 1933 is noted as producing 6884 tonnes of ore for 12 453 ounces of gold over its history to that point.
W.R. Asher put through several small crushings in 1948.

More information is needed on modern mining here, the former open pit now largely filled in with rock from the nearby Kanowna Belle Mine.

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

Mineral List

8 valid minerals.

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Archean 2500 - 4000 Ma ID: 862311

sedimentary rocks 74322 Age: Archean (2500 - 4000 Ma) Description: Phyllitic schist, siltstone, sandstone, greywacke, pelite, conglomerate, quartzite, phyllite, shale, slate, claystone, chert, minor felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks; arkose, para- and orthoamphibolites; rare banded iron formation Comments: argillaceous detrital sediment; sedimentary siliciclastic; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Argillaceous detrital sediment; sedimentary siliciclastic Reference: Raymond, O.L., Liu, S., Gallagher, R., Zhang, W., Highet, L.M. Surface Geology of Australia 1:1 million scale dataset 2012 edition. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia). [5]

Neoarchean - Mesoarchean 2500 - 3200 Ma ID: 3187518

Archean volcanic rocks Age: Archean (2500 - 3200 Ma) Comments: Yilgarn Craton Lithology: Greenstone belt; mafic-ultramafic volcanic rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References