Davyhurst Goldfield, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Davyhurst Goldfield	Ore Field
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Davyhurst is 53 kilometres south-west of Menzies. Being at the junction of four roads, if travelling through the area you are likely to end up at Davyhurst. Early on it was known as Mace's Find, Davyton, and Davyston, before the Menzies warden declared it as Davyhurst, when the town was gazetted in 1901. It is believed to be named after a local miner of the time. Little remains to be seen of the former town.

Despite a number of large pits surrounding the former town site, they were large low grade lodes, which have seen long periods of inactivity over the years. By 1907, a writer noted not one mine was active in the area. Intermittent mining occurred over subsequent decades to now.

Modern mining, involving the development of large open pits began in 1986 with Western Mining Corporation, who erected a treatment plant, then sold the project the following year. Consolidated Gold purchased the area in 1996, and after trucking ore to Bardoc, decided it was easier to move the processing plant from there to Davyhurst. They went into administration April 1998.

The mine was inherited by NM Rothschild and Sons, who continued production until April 1999. The mines were purchased by Croesus Mining NL mid 2000. They opened the Giles deposit in May 2001, and closed this in October 2005, producing 387 000 ounces of gold. In June 2006 they also went into administration.

The Davyhurst mines had been previously sold to Monarch in November 2005. Monarch recommenced mining in June 2007. After under performing, the site was placed on care and maintenance, and the company went into administration in July 2008 (you may notice a pattern developing here).

Stirling Resources Ltd took over Monarch's debt and the company itself, renaming it Swan Gold Mining Ltd, then a name change to Eastern Goldfields, then a subsidiary name spun off as Carnegie Gold to deal with Davyhurst. At the time of writing, the company has made three unsuccessful attempts to raise capital to re-open the mines. It has been accused in the warden's court of paying rents to the Mines Department at the last gasp before forfeiture. At one point, rent was missed over the Christmas break, and a fight ensued in the wardens court when another party claimed a couple of the leases. The company has been suspended from the Australian Stock Exchange for several years.

This section also includes the outlying areas of Mulwarrie to the north-west and Callion to the south, both of which boasted small towns briefly in the late 1890's.

On the eastern side of the Davyhurst area, mineralisation is developed in a series of silica biotite pyrite altered shears within a tholeiitic to Hi MgO basalt sequence. At Lights of Israel an ore shoot within the shear has been tracked with drilling for approximately 1.5 km down plunge and mined approximately 900 m down plunge. A similar shoot development could occur in the adjacent Maiki and Great Ophir deposits. The company also believes it has identified the possible northern extension of the Golden Eagle ore shoot down plunge formant existing open cut deposit.

On the western side of the Davyhurst area, the Waihi trend extends some 30 km from Two Gum Dam prospect in the south, to north of the Waihi Open cut. Gold mineralisation is associated with the sheared contact between a tremolite chlorite schist and Hi MgO basalt unit.

Historic probable reserves of 136koz contained gold at a grade of 2.7g/t Au. Historic resources of 1.5Moz contained gold at a grade of 2.3g/t Au. Production ~ 0.8Moz

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