Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	30° 58' 20'' South , 121° 10' 21'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-30.97247,121.17254
GeoHash:	G#: qdqpv3ehk
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BSh : Hot semi-arid (steppe) climate

Now marked by a shallow open pit, at the northern end of a line of workings encompassing the Dreadnought and Tindalls locations. These were developed as modern low grade gold mines with some success by Focus Minerals over the past couple of decades. The location is 5 kilometres south south-east of Coolgardie.

Historically, the mine was another which promised much and delivered little to long suffering shareholders. Rich gold is reported from the location mid 1895, a little later than some other locations in the area. In October 1895, its reported the mine is sold to Smith and Goodrich (surnames) for an undisclosed figure. Little appears to have happened for the next eighteen months other than some exploration work. In July 1897, the Lady Charlotte Gold Mines Ltd is floated in London for 100 000 pounds capital. Shortly after announcements are made the lode is highly payable and rich in gold. They intend sinking the shaft to 1000 feet, the first to that depth in the region.

Progress continued at a snails pace, with the 10 head battery opened by the Premier, Sir John Forrest, in April 1899. W.A. Geary is noted as mine manager at the time. The first shareholder meeting held in London after the opening was January 1900. To that point the battery had crushed 3530 tonnes for 413 ounces of gold. Such poor recoveries could not continue if the company was to remain viable. The board stated the reef was broken and irregular in its course causing much dead work. They suggested trying instead the nearby St Simon's lode which was lower grade but wider and softer stone. Thomas Thomas (this name is correct-think Duran Duran), was killed in a fall of earth at the mine on the 09 May 1900. The inquiry held a few days later rubber stamped an accidental death with no-one to blame, which was standard procedures for the time. He can now be found in the Coolgardie Cemetery.

A year later the mine was let on tribute. The battery was leased by the government for public crushing in 1902, but then cancelled the lease, due to prospectors stating the battery occupied an isolated position. The last meeting found by the company was January 1903. The directors are volunteering their services at this stage, information provided is meagre, and no mention is made as the company's future prospects. Shortly after the lease was abandoned.

John Mitchell took over as tributer for underground mining in April 1903. The surface tailings and machinery remained under control of the original tributers, however a dispute arose in the Coolgardie Warden's Court in 1904, over who owned the old Lady Charlotte tailings, when a third party tried to peg claims over the area. The last information found was for the St Simon's section of the lease, in 1909 owned by local Coolgardie Prospecting and Development Co. They had let out the lease on tribute to McGuinness and Doran, and a small crushing is reported by them in this year.

Commodity List

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

Mineral List

1 valid mineral.

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: 848390

mafic extrusive rocks 74248 Age: Archean (2500 - 4000 Ma) Description: Basalt, high-Mg basalt, minor mafic intrusive rocks; some andesite; agglomerate; mafic schist; amphibolite; dolerite; komatiitic basalt; carbonated basalt; basaltic andesite; mafic rock interleaved with minor granitic rock Comments: igneous mafic volcanic; igneous mafic intrusive; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous mafic volcanic; igneous mafic intrusive 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: 3187518

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