Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	26° 56' 12'' South , 118° 36' 20'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-26.93690,118.60582
GeoHash:	G#: qehqfbq15
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BWh : Hot deserts climate

Located about 5 kilometres south-west of the Gabinantha gold mine. Little remains other than remnants of tailing heaps and some shafts. Apart from some exploration drilling it has never been developed as a modern open pit since its historical days. There were initially several small mines and prospecting shows on the line of lode, although Star of the East came to quickly dominate. The mine produced 27 019 tonnes of ore for 20 122 oz of gold.

The field was discovered around 1892 by L.R. Menzies, who also had a hand in discovering the Menzies goldfield, and gave his name to that town north of Kalgoorlie. Menzies initially dug a costean across the outcrop and immediately struck a rich chute. This kept him occupied for some time, and it wasn't until 1894 they focussed on the main lode. Menzies formed a company, and in 1894 a 10 head battery was erected at the site. The main lode at water level was 6 feet wide.

In 1895 the Star of the East Company was floated in London with 150 000 pounds of capital. While some dividends were initially paid, the mine's history from this point becomes more chequered. After spending most of this money developing the mine, they found the rich chute suddenly cut out at the 160 foot level, and despite sinking a shaft to 500 feet were unable to pick it up again. The lease was placed on tribute to the Mount Yagahong Company mid 1897. After initially crushing ore left on the surface, they found a rich chute with 12 000 oz of gold claimed to have been obtained. The tribute expired 25 December 1898, and the Star of the East Company again took over the mine in the hope of extracting the remaining gold. However, they found Mt Yagahong had cleared out all the remaining gold, and the mine was effectively placed in care and maintenance.

It is reported in 1908 that the mine had been idle since 1899, being under constant exemption.

Some mining was taking place in 1909, stating a plant has been installed to cope with the sulphide ore, showing copper and some gold. The reef is said to be small and erratic but rich. The plant had been idle at times due to too low a sulphide content for it to operate. By 1910 the Mines Department reports the location is idle again.

The Ingleston Consols syndicate from Meekatharra purchased the headgear, and a portion of the winding and power plant from the mine in 1917, indicating the owners saw little hope of the mine re-opening.

The Aladdin Company from Nannine, erected some machinery, un-watered the main shaft, did some drilling, and had twenty men employed at the site in 1934, but no information was found it progressed to actual mining of ore.

Commodity List

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

Mineral List

11 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

Cenozoic 0 - 66 Ma ID: 798395

ferruginous duricrust 38498 Age: Cenozoic (0 - 66 Ma) Description: Ferruginous duricrust, laterite; pisolitic, nodular, vuggy; may include massive to pisolitic ferruginous subsoil, mottled clays, magnesite, reworked products of ferruginous and siliceous duricrusts, calcrete, gossan; residual ferruginous saprolite Comments: regolith; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Regolith 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: 3188304

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