Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	30° 47' 40'' South , 121° 51' 43'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-30.79451,121.86219
GeoHash:	G#: qdw8v412f
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BSh : Hot semi-arid (steppe) climate

The locality is approximately 10 kilometres south-east of Bulong, and 2 kilometres east of the Bulong-Curtin Road, near Mount Magnetic.

Historically Sweet Nell, Sweet Nell North, Hansfordhaven and Grundts are named. Modern exploration companies call the area Morelands, and maps name Sweet Nell, and Jarvis 500 metres to the south-east. Modern maps name it the Yindarlgooda Mining Centre, naming Grunts as one of the mines. The present prospector on the lease names it the Yindarlgooda Gold Mine.

It was discovered in 1922 by Jack Moreland/John McQueen, or Andy Thompson/E.B. Donnelly, or Dennis Murphy. Who is open to dispute. Historic sources separately name Moreland and Thompson/Donnelly as discoverers, while Murphy held the reward lease.

What can be said is shortly after leases pegged were Jack Moreland GML 578Y, W. Baker GML 580Y, John McQueen GML 576Y, Dennis Murphy GML 590Y, and Thompson/Donnelly 1191Y, all adjacent to each other.

Thompson approached the other lease holders pointing out that by regulations two men had to hold a lease, and with other prospectors on their way, the leases were in danger of being jumped as they were only held by individuals. They came to an arrangement that all should share the area equally. Nothing was written down, as the miners were on amicable terms.

In time however they began to quarrel, with McQueen and Murphy leaving. Baker pegged the leases, and successfully applied for forfeiture of McQueen's lease. Murphy's however was a reward lease, and as such he was allowed to leave it unworked for a time. Moreland/Baker applied for a quarter interest in Thompsons/Donnelly's lease, but it was thrown out of court.

Shortly after the management of Lake View and Star, Associated and Ivanhoe Mines from the Golden Mile visited the Sweet Nell owned by Thompson and Donnelly. One of the directors, A.H. Collier was so impressed he took out a six month option at 9000 pounds to work it himself. He sank a new shaft, found poor values, then left.

Moreland/McQueen sank three shafts to 200 feet on some rich small shoots, although the majority of gold recovered appears to be alluvial. The source states they located the lode on the banks of a ephemeral creek running into Lake Yindarlgooda. The lode ran north-south, 6 to 12 inches wide of gold bearing material.

It states Thompson/Donnelly located a reef a short distance north-west, calling it the Sweet Nell. The reef was 2 feet wide, trending north-south, and dipping slightly west. An open cut was dug 20 feet long by 6 feet wide, producing 19 tonnes of ore yielding 193 ounces. By 1923 Underwood (surname) had joined them. A heavy inflow of water was said to have caused the leases to be abandoned.

In December 1924, the Hunt brothers had taken over the abandoned leases. They also owned the Hannans Reward Gold Mine elsewhere in the district, and ore was sent to their battery at Hannans to be processed. George Hunt resigned as mine manager of the Great Victoria Mine near Marvel Loch to join his brother at Sweet Nell called Charlie Hunt. Another source also names H.W. Hunt and G.A. Bebington as part of the ownership.

They came armed with a larger pump, the old shaft cleared out, with further sinking and driving. Two shafts were on the property. A government geologist at the time said the deposit was unique for the gold was evenly and finely distributed across the lode in very hard vitreous quartz.

Grundt and Lawson as also mentioned at this time holding a prospecting lease, adjacent on the south-west. They had opened two lines of gold bearing lode, with high values in several prospecting shafts sunk. Nuggets were being found over a wide area.

In 1926, the original leaseholder Andy Thompson as well as A.V. Delmere apply for forfeiture of the lease from the Hunt brothers claiming the lease had not been worked for three days. (Regulations stated gold leases had to be worked continuously to be retained). GML 1191Y. The Hunts stated they had erected a 5 head mill on the lease taken from the Mount Monger Proprietary mine, sank a number of shafts, crushed 250 tonnes of ore worth 1500 pounds, and erected a cyanide plant. The case was dismissed.

The Mines Department foreclosed on the lease in 1929, selling the plant and machinery.

In 1927, the Hansfordhaven Gold Mine appears, owned by Jack Moreland, Hanson, Rutherford and Bray (surnames). Initially 80 tonnes was extracted yielding 720 ounces. The shaft at 40 feet deep was called Tree Frog.

Leslie Vernon Spargo was arrested in 1933, allegedly in possession of stolen quicksilver. Spargo stated he had visited the Sweet Nell mine, which was abandoned, and found three beer bottles full of quicksilver under a tree near the old workings. It was noted in court the bottles showed no signs of age. Returning to Kalgoorlie that night, he was also arrested for disorderly conduct.

The mine was involved in another court case the following year. Allen Ernest Barker (19) was a ward of the state. He convinced Frank Kennedy and Mitchell Bennetts to help him take a pastoral station windmill from the Sweet Nell mine. Kennedy and Bennetts stated they had no idea the windmill was being stolen. This is somewhat unbelievable, when on returning to Kalgoorlie, Barker instructed them to hide it in scrub behind the Kalgoorlie rubbish tip. Barker was then seen covering the windmill with bushes.

Modern geology information is very limited. It states Sweet Nell is on the eastern flank of a substantially sized quartz porphyry. Gold was mined from narrow sub-vertical quartz veins.

Buildings and machinery on the lease, a recent for sale notice, and the small size of the lease, all indicate it is a private prospector's camp at the moment.

The Sweet Nell mine officially produced 400.84 tonnes of ore at 74.86 g/t yielding 980.20 ounces of gold.

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

Archean 2500 - 4000 Ma ID: 734714

mafic intrusive rocks 74263 Age: Archean (2500 - 4000 Ma) Description: Mafic intrusive rocks, medium to coarse-grained; layered mafic to ultramafic intrusions - dolerite, gabbro, olivine gabbro, peridotite, pyroxenite, leucogabbro, quartz dolerite, quartz gabbro, gabbronorite Comments: igneous mafic intrusive; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: 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