Spargo's Reward Gold Mine, Spargoville, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Spargo's Reward Gold Mine	Mine
Spargoville	- not defined -
Coolgardie Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The mine is at the site of the old town. Little remains now other than a water tank and a couple of shacks. The mine is about 200 metres south-west of the shacks, and consists of an old overgrown open pit, large area of sands, and minor equipment and building foundations. Modern exploration and cleared areas are found just north of the former town. All are west of the Coolgardie-Norseman Highway, and just south of the Nepean Road turn-off.

The mine was developed in 1935, by the newly formed Spargo's Reward Gold Mines (1935) NL. By 1938 there was a processing plant, cyanide plant, a main shaft to 200 feet depth with levels 1 and 2, an open cut which was almost exhausted by this stage, and No 2 stope from the old No 4 shaft.

Mining continued until December 1 1942, when it closed due to labour shortages and costs associated with World War Two. The mine re-opened in 1946, but never attained its former glory. The company was soon in financial difficulties. It asked for shareholder loans, obtained a 4000 pound loan from the government in 1949, considered a reconstruction. It was to no avail and the mine folded.

The last note found was 1954 when director P.A. Hicks visited the old mine. George Spencer Compton was mine manager previously and accompanied Hicks on the visit. Compton at this stage was geology lecturer at the School of Mines Kalgoorlie. He stated in 1940 the mine employed 40 men. He notes columbite and beryl was found at the mine along with gold. Norseman Gold Mines was exploring for uranium at the deposit stating there was already indications of it. It is doubtful however carnotite or any other economic uranium presence would have been found.

The site is unusual for gold mines on the Yilgarn Craton, for gold was formed through a fumarole. Gold is not associated with quartz veining or related to shearing, faulting or other structural controls, but rather is stratabound. It is associated with subaquaeous felsic volcanics, and epiclastic rocks, and intense area of gold development along the Footwall, and related to the zonation of sulphide minerals.

The pyrite-arsenopryite boundary represents the sea water interface. The pyrite zone shows alteration haloes formed by the fluxing of hydrothermal solutions in the sub-surface feeder. Gold in the arsenopyrite zone is where greywacke was deposited on the sea floor near the discharging point.

The deposit is developed in a tight, south plunging regional synform. The greenstone is dominated by a major sodic felsic volcanic centre, its associated sedimentary shed, and several intercalated units of ultramafic rock and shales.

Gold is found in the sediments within a thick felsic volcanic sequence. Fine grained gold is confined to altered arsenopyrite rich bands, with biotite rich greywacke. The bands are 2-6 cms thick, and where densely grouped forms ore shoots, in a series of stacked plunging lenses, which pinch out rapidly at depth and along strike. The ore bands are surrounded by alteration haloes of lower grade gold, up to 50 metres thick, underlain by a sharp contact zone with non gold bearing pyrite, within altered greywackes and felsic volcanics.

References

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