The Mount Gold Mine, Widgiemooltha, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
The Mount Gold Mine	Mine
Widgiemooltha	Town
Coolgardie Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Mount Gold Mine is 5 kilometres south-west of Widgiemooltha, at the top of a hill.

An Adelaide syndicate developed the mine but abandoned it in 1897 after the workings became flooded. Various prospectors are said to have tried their luck with the mine for the next 20 years, but the sulphide lode was not amenable to processing at the time. At one point the mine was taken over by rich Welsh interests, but problems with their coal mines back in Britain led to operations ceasing, and the mine was idle for many years.

In 1935, an American syndicate, led by local Morton Webber, took over the mine and spent at least 10 000 pounds un-watering the shafts and exploring the deposit. On the 27 May 1935, Raymond D. Brown was overcome by fumes in the mine. He was with another man called Gilbert, when they came across fumes in the underground workings left over from shot the day before. They attempted to climb out, but Brown was overcome within 50 feet of the surface, and fell to the bottom of the shaft and died. The syndicate immediately commandeered a plane and flew a doctor out from Kalgoorlie, but it was too late.

From at least 1941 to 1949 the mine was owned by Ossie Saunders. He had the mine under option in 1946 to the Australian Finance and Mining Corporation, and in 1949 to Western Mining Corporation.

Underground mining took place in the 1980's and 1990's, mainly from Level 2, 35 metres below the surface, with production averaging 9 g/t.

The workings and lodes were mapped in 2004 by Dean Goodwin. They showed several historic workings including shafts and trenches as well as two larger pits at the northern end called Goodwin and Vicks. Several lodes run across the property in a north-west to south-east direction, the most important named Main, German, and No 1 West.

A geological study was conducted on the deposit in 2012. In the Goodwin Pit, gold is associated with chalcopyrite. They uncovered an east-west trending Cu anomaly, abundant tourmaline, Cu, Pd, Zn and Ag values, and rare earths Ce and Nd highest near the best gold values at the top of the hill. Gold is found in a series of sub-vertical quartz veins and is associated with boron metasomatism, hosted in mafic and ultramafic rocks.

The old workings have been partially altered by activity in 2013. Focus Minerals conducted a 4 month mining trial on the German Lode, processing the ore at its Three Mile Hill plant at Coolgardie. It abandoned further attempts to develop the deposit citing low gold prices and high costs.

In 2010, it was estimated the mine had an inferred resource of 2.2 million tonnes of ore at 5.5 g/t yielding 314 000 ounces.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References