Reward Mine (Reward lead; Hanlon's Reward), Jervois Range, Jervois Station, Central Desert Region, Northern Territory, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Reward Mine (Reward lead; Hanlon's Reward)	Mine
Jervois Range	Mountain Range
Jervois Station	- not defined -
Central Desert Region	Region
Northern Territory	Territory
Australia	Country

Tom Hanlon was droving cattle here in 1929, when he discovered malachite staining of the rocks, and pegged a reward lease. It was no mystery to the local aboriginal tribe however, who called it Attutra meaning 'place where parrots get their green'. The prospect immediately south of Reward was named Attutra, and the neighbouring one further south Green Parrot.

Specimens were displayed in Alice Springs and elsewhere, leading to a rush, and forty leases pegged. Most saw some minor surface gouging only. Meanwhile the Hanlon's Reward (Jervois Range) Ltd was formed in Sydney. They sank three shafts down to about 100 feet on the deposit in 1930, but low metal prices the following year forced them to abandon the lease.

The site is 15 kilometres north of the Plenty Highway, and is part of a J shaped ridge, being a steep north plunging syncline lying 2 kilometres east of the Jervois Range escarpment. The Reward Mine is 500 metres west of the Lucy Creek Track, immediately north of Unca Creek, with the Marshall-Attutra Mine a few hundred metres immediately south of the creek. Remains of old processing plants, rusting tanks, headframes are in the area, although the sites have been much disturbed by modern exploration.

No activity occurred in the area until 1937-38 when Randolph Bedford took over the leases under option, and attempted to get Mount Isa Mines Limited interested in them. They sent R. Blanchard to investigate. There was no more activity until 1948, when James Coppock from the Mirror Finish mica mine (eastern Harts Range) arrived. He mined 30 tonnes at least of material, which was sent for processing to Port Kembla in N.S.W.

In 1952, K.G. Johannsen took over, with mining partner Toby Becker, with a syndicate called the Northern Drillers Company, sending small parcels of ore from various locations in the Jervois Range area, by truck to Mount Isa for flux, and processing concentrate for the fertilizer industry. Johannsen constructed two processing plants across the period of the 1950's and 60's, with intermittent mining. He held the Reward lease until 1976.

The Reward Mine is sited on a hill which rises 120 feet above the surrounding plain, containing near vertical beds and lodes, striking north-south. The eastern slope of the hill contains porphyroblastic cordierite-mica-quartz schist, then heading west across the hill, overlying flaggy biotite-muscovite-quartz schist, then a complex lens of magnetite-garnet-quartz granulite, containing calcite, staurolite, tourmaline with Cu and Pb mineralisation. The summit of the hill is capped with an iron enriched gossan, extending north along the ridge for 450 feet, with smaller gossans south along the ridge, consisting of finely crystalline hematite.

The richest copper is on the eastern margin of the gossan, containing a collapsed shaft. Chalcopyrite and pyrite are the main ore minerals at depth, impregnating muscovite-sericite schist, with malachite in the oxidised zone. Galena is also common in the upper levels, but is not apparent on the surface. The main lead lode is on the western margin of the gossan, with erratic values, showing galena at depth, and pyromorphite, cerussite, chalcedony, garnet and quartz near the surface. The southern extent of the Reward lodes are truncated by a fault marked by the Unca Creek.

New Consolidated Goldfields explored the area from 1961 to 1965.
Petrocarb Exploration NL took over the area in the early 1970's, employing prospector G. Teague. The company's first job was to bulldoze Hanlon's hut, not the first time companies in Australia have destroyed mining heritage. Some mining took place by the Plenty River Mining Company in 1981, it appears mainly from the Green Parrot and Marshall lodes,producing 2000 tonnes of ore by 1983, when it was abandoned due to low metal prices. Otter Exploration NL explored for scheelite in the area in the late 1980's. At the time of writing KGL Resources have held the leases for several years, and periodically threatens to open a mine at the location, but nothing but drilling and a pre feasibility report has eventuated so far.

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