Aga Khan Mine, Poona, Cue Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Aga Khan Mine	Mine
Poona	- not defined -
Cue Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Aga Khan Mine is the most significant on the field, and is probably where most specimens in collections originate.

Either Lesley 'Fin' Francis Ryan, or his older brother Henry 'Harry' Alexander Ryan, were the first confirmed, as discovering emeralds at Poona. Their father, Alfred Patrick 'Paddy' Ryan pegged the lease, after showing emeralds found by the brothers to a geologist in 1912, and being told they were valuable. It was called Reward Claim or Mt Ryan lease. Mining was abandoned by 1919, after only low quality emeralds were found.

Renewed interest occurred from 1926-1937, when the Star Emerald Mining Syndicate, formed in 1910 in London, obtained an option to mine the Poona field. Although thousands of carats of emerald rough were shipped to England by the Syndicate, the proportion of cuttable stones was found to be very small and overall the venture was not a success.

The Aga Khan Mine was apparently named after the Aga Khan III of India, who is commonly believed to have been a shareholder in the Star Emerald Mining Syndicate. A recent article by Jim Enever (2019) casts doubt on this. After scrutinising the records of the Star Emerald Syndicate and the Aga Khan's personal investments during the period, he found no direct evidence of the Aga Khan's involvement in the Poona emerald deposits. Enever also found no documented evidence that any emeralds rough had been shipped to India, although enquiries had been made from an Indian gem trader to the WA State Mining Engineer in 1934.

All was quiet till 1963, when Clive Daw started mining the Reward Claim area. As before, little great material was produced, and he sold the lease in 1974 to the newly formed Poona Emeralds Pty Ltd, who could also not make the mine profitable, and abandoned the lease in 1978.

Clement Stephen Cook pegged the ground which was to become the Aga Khan Mine in 1959. He too could not make a living from the mine, and sold it to the Bond Corporation in 1970. Headed by colourful entrepreneur, Alan Bond, whose life could fill up several Mindat pages.

Around 1968, Robert 'Bob' Bellairs pegged several leases in the alluvial tin area south of Cooke's, and mined emerald just north-west of Solomon's. When Bond Corporation lost their lease due to liquidity problems, Bob pegged the lease, naming it Aga Khan. Between 1976-1977, Bob mined the lease, producing 13 830 carat of emerald, but again could not make a profit and mining ceased.

Ralph Bellairs, brother of the above Robert pegged the Emerald Pool Mine, 5 kms east around 1978. Around 1980, saw a major expansion of mining at Aga Khan, when Robert Bellairs went into partnership with two established mining companies. Thirty people worked the mine for six months, culminating in Robert and his mining partner June Kelly travelling to Sydney with over a million dollars of emeralds. Robert passed away soon after. In 1981, the mine had produced 7 580 carat of emerald and 600 mineral specimens (?), but was still unprofitable and closed.

October 1982, the Quartz Blow open cut was mined for six weeks by Minerals and Metal Exchange of Western Australia, and 20 000 carat taken to India. It was of such low quality, the price obtained for the material led them to abandon the mine. In 1988, J.A. Securities Pty ltd had control of all the leases on the field, and began mining at Reward Claim, and mining ceased again in 1990.

In 2001, Mark Hewitt began mining at Aga Khan and the adjacent mines on a part time basis for specimens. Since then this has also been abandoned, although specimens from this period still come up for sale each year at the Perth mineral show.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References