Wolfram King Mine, Mount Gibson Conservation Reserve, Retaliation Goldfield, Yalgoo Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Wolfram King Mine	Mine
Mount Gibson Conservation Reserve	Mountain
Retaliation Goldfield	Ore Field
Yalgoo Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Located approximately 8 kilometres east of the Great Northern Highway, and slightly further north-west from the Mount Gibson Iron Ore Mine. Wolfram King is a small historic tungsten mine, which has seen little modern exploration attention.

The mine is located in the mid-section of the approximately 5 kilometre long Yandhanoo Hills, a north-south trending range of low hills, parallel to the larger/higher Mount Singleton-Mt Gibson Ranges to the east. The historic Bonnie Venture gold mine is a few hundred metres to the north, and the historic Wolfram Queen mine even less to the east.

Access to the location is virtually impossible. The area is encompassed by the Mount Gibson Conservation Reserve, which is closed to the public. Active mining leases have been common. Access tracks into the area have long overgrown. Satellite images would indicate the mine's footprint on the landscape is very small, as nothing was seen.

One source states the tungsten deposit was discovered in 1914, another states it was 1916 by J. Parker. The mine has produced a total of 1598 kg of wolfram concentrates. One source states the mine last closed in the 1950's, however the writer was only able to locate information for a short period in 1918.

In March 1917, the above J. Parker held a meeting in Kalgoorlie to form a syndicate to acquire the mine. It took them a full year to form the Wolfram King Proprietary Ltd, with the majority of shareholders from Kalgoorlie. They state at that time a tunnel had been driven into the hill by prospectors, but no further work had been done. J. Gibbs as manager (formerly underground manager at the Mount Morgan Mine) was dispatched to the site.

Through the rest of 1918, a party of twenty five men extended the tunnel to 117 feet. The manager states they found splashes of ironstone with a little wolfram. Two tunnels are noted (possibly one was the Wolfram Queen location). The reef was said to be 18 inches to 2 feet wide, they note copper and gold at the mine also up to 17 dwt for the latter, and 150 tonnes of ore at grass. The Mines Inspector visited at the end of 1918, and was equally circumspect stating the reef is ironstone and quartz, with patches of wolfram. The ore had been handpicked to 50% wolfram, but he notes wolfram at lower levels in the dump also. There was no other information reported after 1918, and it is thought the level of wolfram found was uneconomic, and the enterprise closed.

Several companies since 1974 have explored the area, but the only one to take an interest briefly in the wolfram deposit was a company called Gold Partners between 1984-1989. It stated the tungsten lodes were too narrow and low grade to be of any value. It noted anomalous gold at the mine related to BIF and quartz veining, and associated this as being on strike with the nearby Bonnie Venture Mine. The company did not make any detailed geology analysis of the Wolfram King deposit.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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