Bullant Gold Mine, Carbine Goldfield, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australia
Latitude & Longitude (WGS84): | 30° 31' 36'' South , 121° 3' 26'' East |
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Latitude & Longitude (decimal): | -30.52682,121.05726 |
GeoHash: | G#: qdw46dz0q |
Locality type: | Mine |
Köppen climate type: | BSh : Hot semi-arid (steppe) climate |
The pit is in high magnesium basalt, cut by a series of 0.5 to 20 metre wide ductile shear zones as part of the Zuleika Shear, that strikes north-west to south-east, and dips 88 degrees south-west. High grade gold is associated with the intersections of the main shear zone and a cross cutting north north-east fault. The western most lode has a dextral jog, also associated with high grade gold.
Fine grains of free gold and ore minerals are hosted in quartz-carbonate veins, or disseminated in silicates-biotite-pyrite in altered basalt. Biotite and carbonate are the prime alteration minerals, while ore minerals include galena, sphalerite, pyrrhotite, pyrite and marcasite.
There are 4 ore lodes named Main, West, East and Cross. The mine has a Measured, Indicated, and Inferred JORC resource totalling 2.33 Mt at 5.38 g/t yielding 403 000 ounces of gold. There is an open pit, with an underground mine decline, with mining down to 700 metres below the surface.
The mine was operated by Kundana Gold Pty Ltd for 10 years, then allowed to flood when they ceased mining in December 2009. (Another two sources states Barrick owned the mine by Dec 2009). It was sold to Argent Minerals in October 2010, then Kalgoorlie Mining Company who sold it to Norton in 2013. Kalgoorlie Mining installed a plant in mid 2011, and began mining shortly after. Production shortfalls and increased costs saw the mine close early 2012. It was then sold to Norton in 2013. In January 2015 Norton Gold Fields Ltd resumed mining at Bullant and nearby Wattlebird.
Commodity List
This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.Mineral List
8 valid minerals.
Rock Types Recorded
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Alphabetical List Tree DiagramRegional 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: 795073 | ultramafic and minor mafic rocks 74475 Age: Archean (2500 - 4000 Ma) Description: Tremolite-chlorite-talc amphibolite, metapyroxenite, pyroxenite, peridotite, serpentinite, ultramafic schists, komatiite, high-Mg basalt; also chalcedony, silica, jasper, silcrete, silica cap rock on ultramafic rocks Comments: igneous ultramafic intrusive; meta-igneous ultramafic volcanic; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous ultramafic intrusive; meta-igneous ultramafic volcanic 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: 3190331 | Archean sedimentary and volcanic rocks Age: Archean (2500 - 3200 Ma) Comments: Yilgarn Craton Lithology: Felsic 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] |
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