St. Ives gold camp, Kambalda, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
St. Ives gold camp	- not defined -
Kambalda	Town
Coolgardie Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

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Gold district located in the southern part of the Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt within the Eastern Goldfields Province of the Yilgarn Craton. Located south of Kambalda. It is presently owned and operated by South African based Goldfields company.

This is a series of active gold mines and prospects between 5-30 kilometres south south-east of Kambalda, on the eastern shores of Lake Lefroy, and in some instances on the normally dry salt lake bed itself.

The closest a visitor can get is the Red Hill lookout at the northern end near Kambalda East. The abandoned Red Hill pit is at the base of the hill near Lake Lefroy.

A causeway heads south south-east across the lake. The Temeraire, Redoubtable, Intrepid, Bahama and Santa Ana are all pits on Lake Lefroy in that order heading south.

In the middle of the lake is an island containing several closely spaced deposits, open pits, and one underground mine. These are again from the north, Belleisle underground, Mars, Minotaur, Agamenon Main, East, West and South, North Revenge Kapi, West Revenge, Revenge Grinder, Delta South and Pluton.

The causeway resumes south south-east a short distance across the lake, with Neptune bordering to the west. Immediately upon reaching the mainland on the southern side is Thunderer pit on the lake shore, Bellerophon to the east, North Orchin and Orchin, Alicia, Britannia Sirius, Victory/Defiance, Leviathan, the small Lifeboat and Pinnace pits as well as the administration offices and mill.

A short distance south and east of the road is Paddy's/West Idough. Then a few kilometres south another group of mines between the access road (west) and lake. This includes Apollo, Argo underground, Athena underground, Hamlet underground, and the small pits of Blue Lodge Cutback, Clifton West, Boxcut, and Diana. Heading a few kilometres further south is the Junction Mine at the southern limit of the leases. Further south is the Lanfranchi nickel mines owned by another company.

The company is also actively mining at the underground Cave Rocks mine, north-west of Kambalda.

Gold was discovered at Red Hill in 1897. Various other deposits including Victory was discovered between 1897 to 1907.

St Ives is named after prospector Pat Ives, who discovered gold here. The Ives Reward Mine opened in 1919. It closed in 1926 after producing 10 Koz of gold. The small town which had developed next to the mine was abandoned.

Western Mining Corporation began exploring for nickel in the region from the late 1960's. It operated various gold mines at St Ives, after discovering the Victory/Defiance complex in 1981.
Initially gold was processing at a Kambalda plant, before the company constructed a 3.1 Mtpa plant at St Ives itself in 1988. In 2001, a 2.0 Mtpa leach heap facility was erected. Further in 2004, a 4.8 Mtpa mill was constructed.

In 2001, South African based miner Gold Fields Ltd purchased it. They also own the Agnew Gold Mine in Western Australia. Production is over 500 000oz of gold pa. Cave Rocks and Belleisle mines were opened in 2007 (Belleisle closed 2011), a new open pit at Leviathan in 2008, the Hamlet-Athena deposit was discovered in 2009, and the Athena mine opened in 2011.

Operational underground mines are Argo, Athena, Cave Rocks, and Hamlet. Athena is the third largest gold mine in Australia. Open pit mining occurs at Leviathan, Agemenon, Apollo, and Formidiable pits.

Gold mineralisation is found in all rock members, but is most concentrated in the mafic parts, above the Kambalda Komatiite. It is found in basalts, dolomite, slate where it is associated with quartz stockworks and vein arrays, breccia, localised north north-west shear zones in very fine grained sections (mylonitic) and quartz sections, and off-shoots from the regional Boulder-Lefroy fault. Structural features are surrounded by an alteration zone with a core of albite-ankerite/dolomite-quartz-pyrite. Gold is found associated with the pyrite. This core is surrounded by a biotite zone, then an enhanced chlorite zone, before the regional greenschist metamorphic rocks.

Three styles of gold mineralisation are noted at St Ives, and more than one type can be found in individual deposits.
1. Lode mineralisation of 0.5 to 20 metres wide, in Archaean mesothermal vein complexes that may also have hydraulic breccias and/or mylonites indicating movement on a shear.
2. Supergene mineralisation as broad flat lying gold mineralisation Archaean, or overlying Tertiary sediments.
3. Palaeoplacer mineralisation hosted by channels in Tertiary sediments overlying the Archaean basement.

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded from this region.

Mineral List

Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities

56 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

Rock list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities