Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
31° 32' 36'' South , 119° 34' 22'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Long-form identifier:
mindat:1:2:11511:0
A gold property started 1984.
VHMS style deposit.
Brothers C and H Burbidge discovered gold here in 1902, and caused great excitment at the time, being described as the largest lode formation discovered up to that point in Western Australia. In truth no-one knew and early mining was the near surface oxide zone. It turned out to be a complex, low grade, and very large gold deposit. The Burbidge brothers developed the mine in its early years. Its large size drew interest, and its low grade put companies off committing to mining.
An option was taken over the mine in 1908 by the Sunnyside Syndicate of Melbourne. The Great Boulder Proprietary Company from Kalgoorlie held an extended option over the mine in 1912 but declined to purchase it. A Kalgoorlie syndicate took over the mine in 1922. By 1926 it is noted the near surface laterite material is still being mined with no exploration at depth. The mine had a 10 head battery, but a lack of water hampered the development of the mine in its early years. Another problem was the treatment of the ore caused by gibbsite reacting with water and other minerals to release sulphuric acid. One source states C Burbidge was still at the mine in 1930, re-treating residues with two other men also employed.
Drilling at the deposit took place in 1933 by the Anglo-Australian Development Company. In 1935 the Great Victoria United NL was floated to resurrect the mine indicating it had been in decline or ceased operations for a time. The float was open for five minutes and was over-subscribed They re-treated the mullock piles. By 1937 they were applying for exemptions in the Warden's Court, usually a sign of problems at a mine.
In 1939 an Adelaide company called the Marvel Loch Development NL owned the mine, with A.E. Paul as Mine Manager. No record of mining could be found from this point till 1984 when the mine was re-opened using modern processing techniques. At present (2013) the mine is abandoned and the ground rehabilitated.
The deposit is on the western limb of a north pitching anticline in sediments overlying older mafic greenstone. The host sequence is iron quartzite, micaceous schist, and banded iron formation. The deposit is located in a large, steep, north pitching drag fold in iron quartzite and sandstone. The ore forms two main lines of lode named Great Victoria and Prince Regent. The mineralisation is in highly brecciated lenticular lodes of laminated hematite/quartz, with additional quartz veining.
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Detailed Gallery
Strunz
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Commodity List
This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.Mineral List
9 valid minerals.
Rock Types Recorded
Note: data is currently VERY limited. Please bear with us while we work towards adding this information!
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Alphabetical List Tree Diagram
Entries shown in red are rocks recorded for this region.
Detailed Mineral List:
| ⓘ Ankerite Formula: Ca(Fe2+,Mg)(CO3)2 |
| ⓘ Gibbsite Formula: Al(OH)3 References: Mock, C., Elliott, B.G., Ewers, G.R., Lorenz, R.P. (1987), Gold Deposits of Western Australia, BMR, Datafile (MINDEP), Resource Deposit 3, Department of Primary Industries and Energy, Bureau of Mineral Resources Geology and Geophysics, Commonwealth Government of Australia, 1987. |
| ⓘ Hematite Formula: Fe2O3 |
| ⓘ Magnetite Formula: Fe2+Fe3+2O4 |
| ⓘ Marcasite Formula: FeS2 |
| ⓘ Native Gold Formula: Au |
| ⓘ Pyrite Formula: FeS2 |
| ⓘ Pyrrhotite Formula: Fe1-xS |
| ⓘ Quartz Formula: SiO2 |
Gallery:
List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification
List of minerals for each chemical element
Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality
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References
Mock, C., Elliott, B.G., Ewers, G.R., Lorenz, R.P. (1987), Gold Deposits of Western Australia, BMR, Datafile (MINDEP), Resource Deposit 3, Department of Primary Industries and Energy, Bureau of Mineral Resources Geology and Geophysics, Commonwealth Government of Australia, 1987.
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To cite: Ralph, J., Von Bargen, D., Martynov, P., Zhang, J., Que, X., Prabhu, A., Morrison, S. M., Li, W., Chen, W., & Ma, X. (2025). Mindat.org: The open access mineralogy database to accelerate data-intensive geoscience research. American Mineralogist, 110(6), 833–844.
doi:10.2138/am-2024-9486.
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