Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	28° 20' 20'' South , 122° 24' 22'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-28.33896,122.40631
GeoHash:	G#: qdznc3j99
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BWh : Hot deserts climate

The Cork Tree Well Gold Mine is 35 kilometres north of Laverton, and 1 kilometre west of the Erilstoun Road.

This was a modern discovery, however near here was a hotel built in 1904, and abandoned around 1912. The proprietor was Angus Milne, who was a coachman in the early days of the Coolgardie rush. The hotel serviced people travelling north to the gold mines at Erilstoun and Duketon. It was also the location for sporting events between teams from Laverton and Erilstoun, being half-way between the places. Some rough characters passed through.

The hotel was abandoned after it was attacked by some aborigines. Others in the tribe beat the perpetrators senseless, and then they had to face the 'white mans' court as well at Laverton. During the affray, Milne had been fired upon and injured. However during the proceedings it became apparent he had supplied the aborigines with liquor. As this was illegal at the time, Milne was subsequently charged. Milne died from heart failure at Laverton in 1916.

The first information about gold at the site was 1981, when Northgate Exploration Canada, loaned 1.5 million to Whim Creek Consolidated to develop the deposit. This did not take place until 1986 to 1988, when 740 000 tonnes of oxide ore was extracted at 2.49 g/t from two shallow, north-south striking pits, yielding 49 900 ounces of gold. The company at this stage was called Austwhim.

From around 2008, A1 Minerals controlled the lease. They were taken over by Beijing Stone in 2011, who changed the company named to Stone Resources Australia Ltd. A1 Minerals had re-named the mine Delta. It notes in 2011 five deposits being Delta (Cork Tree Well Mine), Delta North, New North, palaeochannels, and Delta 2. Total JORC resources are 3.8 Mt @ 1.91 g/t yielding 237 000 ounces.

Gold occurs in graphitic schists (50%), interbedded cherts (5-60%), and pyrite (5-15%), the unit 12 to 30 metres wide surrounded by basic lava and tuff. High grade gold is found in an intersection zone of a east north-east trending shear, and an intrusion.

Commodity List

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

Mineral List

2 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

Quaternary 0 - 2.588 Ma ID: 701295

colluvium 38491 Age: Pleistocene (0 - 2.588 Ma) Description: Colluvium and/or residual deposits, sheetwash, talus, scree; boulder, gravel, sand; may include minor alluvial or sand plain deposits, local calcrete and reworked laterite 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: 3188638

Archean volcanic and intrusive 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

External Links