Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	29° 10' 8'' South , 116° 58' 3'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-29.16887,116.96739
GeoHash:	G#: qdg4j9vp1
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BSh : Hot semi-arid (steppe) climate

The Highland Chief Gold Mine is at the southern end of the Minjar Gold District, 500 metres north of the Tungsten Trench Mindat locality, and borders the Perenjori to Warriedar Road. When active, ore is hauled by truck north along a private haulage road, some 50 kilometres to the processing plant.

While a historic gold mine location, modern mining started here in December 2001 to July 2006 by Gindalbie Gold Pty Ltd, and has subsequently been owned by Monarch Gold Mining Pty Ltd, Golden Stallion Resources, and around 2010 was purchased by the Shandong Tianye Group.

Historic information was only located between 1916 to 1924. In 1916 it is noted as being owned by J.W.D. Robinson who was also the station owner at Warriedar. At the time there was an open cut 8 feet deep by 60 feet long on a north-west to south-east trending reef. Gold at its richest point assayed at 37 dwt per tonne. 600 tonnes of ore was reported at grass. The journalist was shown some 'magnificent' specimens containing coarse and fine gold. There are also 5 small shafts running north to south to 57, 30, 40, 42 and 18 feet deep respectively. Modern mining may have obliterated much of this description.

One report states H. Hill acquired the mine for 2000 pounds in May 1922, but a 1923 report states it is still owned by Robinson. The ore is being treated at the Warriedar state battery 5 miles to the north-east. The lode it states outcrops on the west side of a small hill, with the lode itself micaceous schist interspersed with quartz leaders, kaolin, and ironstone running at various angles.

Recent exploration by Hazelwood Resources at the site details significant tungsten mineralisation in the overburden at the mine. This should come as no surprise considering the previously explored Tungsten Trench is less than 500 metres to the south, a large but low grade tungsten deposit never mined.

The Bobby McGee deposit was discovered in 2003 within a stones throw of the Highland Chief Mine, and the present company has plans to develop it as an open pit. The other location names are prospects also in the immediate area. Monarch Gold Mining in 2006 estimated Highland Chief had a total resource of 37 900 tonnes at a grade of 1.9 for 2300 ounces of gold. Bobby McGee had a resource of 202 400 tonnes at a 2.2 grade for 14 200 ounces of gold.

Commodity List

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

Mineral List

4 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

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: 837890

mafic extrusive rocks 74255 Age: Archean (2500 - 4000 Ma) Description: Metabasalt, high-Mg basalt, tholeiitic basalt, carbonated basalt, agglomerate, mafic schist, dolerite, amphibolite; porphyritic basalt and dolerite; komatiitic basalt; mafic pyroclastics; minor mafic schist with granite intercalations Comments: igneous mafic volcanic; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous mafic volcanic 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: 3189631

Archean sedimentary and volcanic rocks Age: Archean (2500 - 3200 Ma) Comments: Yilgarn Craton Lithology: 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