Boulder Main Reef Gold Mine (Great Boulder Main Reef; Boulder South Extended), Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Boulder Main Reef Gold Mine (Great Boulder Main Reef; Boulder South Extended)	Mine
Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines	Group of Mines
Kalgoorlie-Boulder	- not defined -
Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Boulder Main Reef was a historic lease at the southern end of the Golden Mile. With the Great Boulder Proprietary lode traversing the lease it was a rich mine in the early days. The Chaffers lease bordered it to the west, Great Boulder East lease to the east, and Great Boulder Proprietary to the north.

The original prospector was H.G. Parsons, the mine named Boulder South Extended. He sold the lease in 1895 to a company floated in London called the Great Boulder Main Reef Gold Mining Company. This company was registered on 23 August 1895, with 30 000 pounds working capital. Three shafts were initially sunk, although the one in the south-west corner of the property was soon abandoned. Bainbridge Seymour and Co were the initial consulting engineers, and thirty men had been employed on the lease.

M. Modest Maryanski discovered telluride on the dump in 1896, significantly increasing the value of the mine. An inspection of the underground workings revealed a vein dipping slightly east, with a distinct Hanging Wall in schistose diorite country rock. The vein was largely calcite, dark greenish quartz and dark greenish talc matter (as described by Maryanski), throughout heavily impregnated with pyrite and telluride of gold.

Previously this ore had been sent to the mill, which was not able to process it, and was left on the dumps to be used as a road metal base. The mine was at the forefront investigating the best ways to process the telluride ores, and by 1900 had a new Diehl processing plant. The lease also contained a normal 10 head battery.

While this was a rich mine and dividends were paid, by 1909 they were struggling to find payable ore lodes. The mine was closed for much of this year, the plant leased to the Chaffers mine for six months. The Chaffers company then decided to purchase the lease in 1910, and the Great Boulder Main Reef Co went into liquidation.

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