Mount Jackson Goldfield, Yilgarn Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Mount Jackson Goldfield	Ore Field
Yilgarn Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Located 67 kilometres north north-west of Koolyanobbing. The 617 metre hill was discovered by Augustus Gregory on 19 Aug 1846, during his first expedition from the Swan River colony. Prospectors James Speakman and William Hall discovered gold at Mt Jackson in Jan 1894.

Presently iron ore is being mined at the site by Cliff Resources, who is also mining at Koolyanobbing. Ore is trucked to here, then railed to Esperance. They also mine iron ore at Windarling, a further 27 kilometres north of Mt Jackson.

Just to the north of the Mt Jackson Range are a number of small historic gold mines, both east and west of the Bullfinch-Evanston Road. These were developed shortly after the discovery in 1894, a few by companies, the remainder by prospectors. The reefs were small, some rich, all at a shallow depth. A lack of water and battery facilities hampered development, and no mine was large enough to warrant the investment to resolve the issues. Little of the ore raised was actually crushed, and gold obtained. The goldfield slowly died. It revived briefly during the Bullfinch speculation bubble in 1910-1911, but after that it reverted to a prospecting area.

Invariably leases here are still active, mainly by individual prospectors, and no company has ever developed the field in modern times. Metal detecting should only be done with the leaseholder's permission, which is usually not forthcoming.

Research into this goldfield presented a few problems. Its distance from any civilisation, and small prospector shows in the 1890's, means limited information is available. Named mines in the 1890's, sometimes do not match locations on present maps, or even the Geological Survey of Western Australia report in 1911, which is the only coherent explanation of the goldfield found. Some leaseholders pegged several leases in their name around the field, and information found often does not locate the named mine in relation to its existence in the landscape. Some mines are named after Australian snakes on mine maps, but no information was found under these names, and probably relate to a later renaming. Some of the outlying locations, are probably lost localities, not visited for one hundred years, and forgotten about.

The Geological Survey of Western Australia published a report on the field in 1911, and as much of the area is little changed since that time, is still of some use.

The goldfield is amphibolite and gabbro, traversed with pegmatites and shear zones, along which highly silicified and partly ferruginous schists have developed. These schists intersect the mineralised veins of quartz, jasper, common opal, and often contain considerable quantities of near surface gold. This is richest near the contact of the greenstone with granite, and near the dykes, mainly on their eastern side.

There are two main groups- the Western Group and the Mt Jackson Group, to the east. The Western Group in 1911 contained 40 leases, re-pegged at the time for speculative purposes. The reefs became small at depth, in hard country. These mines are generally west of the Bullfinch-Evanston Road, but some in the second group are also to the modern road. Named mines include Athlone, General Roberts, Jackson Wonder.

The eastern group the source divides into a further 5 groups of leases. The eastern most was Boondine. Also named was Dallison's, Marda, Allen's Find, Butcher Bird. It should be noted a range of other named leases were found in the 1890's, probably occupying the same area, but had undergone a name change.

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References