Wilthorpe Gold, Peak Hill Mining District, Meekatharra Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Wilthorpe Gold	- not defined -
Peak Hill Mining District	Mining District
Meekatharra Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

(Map- where Google Maps locates 'Peak Hill' is actually the location for the Fortnum Gold Mine. The former Peak Hill town site is elsewhere in the region to the south-east- see 'Main Gold Mine' Mindat locality).

This location is on the western edge of the Peak Hill general area. Its an isolated spot accessed via miles of station tracks about 25 kilometres south south-west of the Fortnum Mine, and north of Mt Padbury. There appears to be a small abandoned pit at the site.

It was reported as a new find in late 1904. Warden Bagot arrived soon after from Peak Hill. He states the Wilthorpe lease sits on low hills, with the reef outcropping across the lease, and is 5 to 20 feet wide, when seen at a depth of 6 to 10 feet below the surface. Five shafts had been sunk, and all the ore inspected contained gold to varying degrees. Nine men were on the workings. A lack of water, the small nature of the discovery, and the high cost of carting ore to the Peak Hill battery, saw the field abandoned not much past its initial prospecting stage.

Renewed interest was found in 1929, after substantial rare rains allowed access to the area. Samuel Lyons and Colin Munro applied for prospecting leases. So to the Big Four Gold Mining Company, which almost immediately issued a prospectus to raise 3000 pounds from shareholders. It was not a substantial sum to open a new mine, but nothing was found as to whether the prospectus was successful, or any mining by the company.

There are very few even minor gold areas in Western Australia, that have not seen some sort of modern exploration. Meteoric Resources held the area from 2005 to 2011, and drilled some holes. It found a 2.4 kilometre long by 200 metre wide gold anomaly, overlying extensive sheeted veins and stringer systems called Harrods, and the Cartier prospect 2 kilometres to the south. The company claims an estimated resource of 61 600 ounces of gold. Both areas contain an east north-east to north-east trending vein sets in a north striking corridor, hosted by Proterozoic sediments.

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