Lancefield Gold Mine (Beria Consuls; Summit), Laverton, Laverton Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Lancefield Gold Mine (Beria Consuls; Summit)	Mine
Laverton	- not defined -
Laverton Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Discovered by John Lemon in 1897 and named after his hometown in Victoria. The manager of the nearby Murrin Murrin Mine, W.T. Horton formed a syndicate , erected a battery and began mining gold from the deposit in January 1899.

London based Lancefield Gold Mining Company took over in 1904, with future US President Herbert Hoover, as one of its directors. Shortly after, the mine experienced problems when it struck the sulphide ores typical of the Lancefield ore-body, and the plant had to be closed down and re-organised as a dry crushing and roasting operation. Huge boilers were installed and a tramway laid from Laverton to supply wood. The mine is 8 kilometres north of Laverton.

The company went into liquidation in 1913, and shortly after the mine was bought by the Kalgoorlie and Boulder Firewood Company, who renamed it Beria Consuls Mine, after the town next to the mine (nothing remains of the town other than a cricket pitch).

Lancefield Company bought the mine in 1915 and operated it till 1940. Over this last period it produced 552 000 oz of gold and 52 000 oz of silver.

In 1979, Western Mining Corporation re-opened the mine from four open pits along a 2 kilometre strike length. It then was developed as an underground operation, renamed the Summit Mine, and reaching a depth of 950 metres making it one of the deepest in Western Australia. The mine closed in 1994.

The Lancefield deposit is a sequence of komatiites, Mg basalt, massive pillowed mafic volcanics, carbonaceous slate, iron formations and chert.
This is host to at least three stratabound mineralised sulphide beds named W6, W10 and M1.

The lowest is W6 of black shale and chert with up to 5% sulphide, and contains the West Lode with gold mineralisation. W10 is a 1 to 2 metre thick sulphidic chert and black shale, with chlorite, pyrite, pyrrhotite and magnetite. The highest sequence is M1 which contains 15% pyrite and pyrrhotite, and lesser arsenopyrite, and is host to gold mineralisation in the Main Lode. The sulphides occur as irregular wispy branching aggregates, parrallel to the bedding.

The old Lancefield Mine accessed ore from the main lode in the M1 bed. This was on a shoot 2 to 7 metres thick with a 300 metre strike length at the surface, tapering to 70 metres at 300 metres below the surface, before expanding again to 200 metres in length at 500 metres below the surface.

The West Lode contains a number of styles of free gold bearing quartz veins, chert, carbonatised and silicified komatiite, and hydrothermally altered sediments in the W6 bed.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References