Mount Iron Mine (Big Iron; Little Mary Lease; PA No. 503; Kundip Project), Kundip, Ravensthorpe Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Mount Iron Mine (Big Iron; Little Mary Lease; PA No. 503; Kundip Project)	Mine
Kundip	- not defined -
Ravensthorpe Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Firstly this has nothing to do with iron ore mining. I believe the name is alluding to the fact gold mineralisation at the site is found in ironstone, the mine at the far east section of Kundip near the top of the Ravensthorpe Range, which contains banded iron formations.

An Iron Cap mine was found in the area operating between 1907-1908 but could not be confirmed was the same mine. Most mines in the area started as very small operations of a few men each at best in the early Twentieth Century.

In 1932 it is reported an oil hoist, ore bins and self tipping skips had been installed, being the first mention of the Mount Iron lease. Ten parties were working the field at the time. The Kundip battery reported it was crushing ore from the mine in 1934.

It may have been abandoned shortly after as October 1936, the Mount Iron lease is re-applied for and trial crushings proved it to be a payable proposition. March 1937 we are informed the late Mount Iron lease is now called PA No. 503. Three hundred tonnes of ore were ready to be crushed, but was waiting on water for the Kundip battery. Between March 1937 and December 1937, 2333 tonnes of ore was crushed for 299 oz of gold worth at the time 2392 pounds.

In 1938 the mine is owned by Edgerton and Party, and are crushing ore at the Gem battery (a nearby gold mine). They were averaging only 2 and a half dwt per tonne but the ore body is a large size, and the ore soft allowing 25-30 tonnes of ore to be processed per day.


Another name change was reported this time still from the 'old Mount Iron Mine' to Little Mary lease was in 1939, the mine owned at the time by P. Bell and Sons. The last report of ore being crushed from the mine at the nearby battery was in 1940.

The site presently contains a pit 60 metres long, 50 metres wide and 20 metres deep, with ochre prominent in the upper levels (see Kundip Ochre Mine), and the historic shafts still to be seen extending downwards from the bottom of the pit. There are two parrallel structures extending from the nearby Christmas Gift shafts to the south, through the Mount Iron lease and extending north-east over a total length of 500 metres.

Norseman Gold Mines in 1984, then Metana Minerals NL 1988 explored the site. Tectonic Resources then took an interest in the site, calling it the Kundip Project. Further drilling was done, and they became so excited by what it found, the company name was changed to Phillips River Mining ( old name for the Ravensthorpe mining area). Announcements were made mining would start mid 2013, but instead the site was sold to Silver Lake Resources in June 2012. On visiting January 2013, there was nil activity at the site.

Three kilometres north of the mine is an abandoned gold processing plant linked to the mining site. The processing plant is called Big Iron, and can be seen prominently in the distance on top of the Ravensthorpe Ranges, looking east from the Raventhorpe-Hopetoun Road.

The processing plant consists of a primary crusher, fine ore bin, ball mill, single leach tank, six CIP tanks and a tailings storage facility. Further there are trucks, drums of chemicals, demountable buildings, and virtually any other thing you can think of if the workers were beamed up by aliens and the plant left insitu.

No information could be found about the history of the plant in the public domain. I am not an expert of judging the age from the levels of rust on machinery, but would guess it has been abandoned for 20 years.

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