Barrambie Range Gold Mine, Barrambie Range Goldfield, Sandstone Shire, Western Australia, Australia
| Latitude & Longitude (WGS84): | 27° 31' 18'' South , 119° 11' 7'' East |
|---|---|
| Latitude & Longitude (decimal): | -27.52194,119.18554 |
| GeoHash: | G#: qehg2ju30 |
| Locality type: | Mine |
| KΓΆppen climate type: | BWh : Hot deserts climate |
The Golden Hill lease (16 acres),Golden Treasure, Treasure Trove and Lily of the Valley leases were purchased in 1906 from the prospectors by the Barrambie Range Gold Mining Company, floated in Victoria for the purposes of opening up the deposit. Its shareholders were in for a short and sharp rollercoaster ride. A 10 head battery, winding gear, cyanide plant, boiler and pump was constructed at the mine. There was a constant battle to find water for the mine. The company sank three shafts on the Golden Treasure lease and another at the boundary with the Golden Hill lease.
Gold was found in quartz, chlorite, schist and decomposed diorite. The hanging wall contained pyrites but was barren of gold. The footwall carried gold as veins and small stringers in quartz. Gold was also found in the oxidised zone as spidery gold in cavities. Government geologist, H.P Woodward, made a glowing reference to the mine in 1906, stating very rich specimens had come from the mine, and an inspection of the dumps showed gold specimens thickly covering it.
All was not happy at the mine.The company had dug trial shafts at the location prior to purchase, and had produced glowing reports for potential shareholders. It therefore came as a shock when gold from the mine came through at far lower levels than expected. Share values slumped. Angry shareholders stormed annual general meetings in Melbourne.
The mine manager, J.M. Aldridge, claimed gold was being stolen from the mine, a claim backed by the company in far off Melbourne. The miners threatened legal action stating they had been defamed. Constable Fanning had worked at the mine as a trucker, then joined the police force. He returned to Barrambie employed as an under-cover miner. After two months he caught employee William Chalker stealing gold from the south stope. On attempting to arrest him, a struggle ensued, and a gun was pulled. More gold from the mine was found at his camp, and he was sentenced to six months jail.
All the miners were sacked and employees who had been truckers employed. However they were not paid at miner's rates of pay and they went on strike and were sacked as well. The company was wound-up in 1911 and the mine closed.
Commodity List
This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.Mineral List
5 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
| Quaternary 0 - 2.588 Ma ID: 921132 | colluvium 38491 Age: Pleistocene (0 - 2.588 Ma) Description: Colluvium and/or residual deposits, sheetwash, talus, scree; boulder, gravel, sand; may include minor alluvial or sand plain deposits, local calcrete and reworked laterite Comments: regolith; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Regolith 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: 3187503 | Archean intrusive rocks Age: Archean (2500 - 3200 Ma) Comments: Yilgarn Craton Lithology: Intrusive igneous 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] |
Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
References
