Fairplay Gold Mine (Sugar Gum), Higginsville Goldfield, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Fairplay Gold Mine (Sugar Gum)	Mine
Higginsville Goldfield	Ore Field
Coolgardie Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Now the site of a small abandoned open pit, it is 500 metres south south-west of the Higginsville processing plant. It is one of a number of mines in the immediate area. West of the mine, near the highway and entrance road to the plant are the remnants of several historic gold mines, and a small amount of battery sands. This is from gold mining operations from 1906 to 1910, then through the 1920's and 1930's.

Mining began in 1907, but little was found for its early years. The first report on the mine was found in 1919. This states telluride ore was found in the mine during its early days, before the ore body was cut off by a fault and lost. The report is unconfirmed. Rae and MacPherson (surnames) are the owners who uncovered mustard gold.

The next report 1921. This states the mine was originally worked by A. Sampey, but the mine was abandoned. During Sampey's time it was called Fairplay, however during the 1920's and 1930's it was named Sugar Gum, before reverting back to Fairplay for operations after this.

The mine was taken over in 1921 by a syndicate of Edwin Lancelot Davey, Eugene McAuliffe, Christopher Lesk and W.H. Vale of Kalgoorlie. 12 acres. GML 5191, previously GML 5141. Development of the mine is noted with small leaders then a reef uncovered. A trial parcel of ore is sent to Norseman for processing, before they purchased the Sons of Erin mine plant (a nearby mine). This find is said to have been 100 feet south-west of the old workings. They abandoned the mine in 1923 stating it was not payable.

In 1931, J. Cain is noted as owner, who found a new lode in the old workings. A Melbourne syndicate took out an option over the mine, and neighbouring Rising Sun and North End mines in 1932.

In 1934, Western Mining Corporation was given a 12 month working option over the mine. The lease however was taken out in their engineers name, Alexander John MacGeorge in 1932. 24 acres. GML 5272. A company called Slavin's Block Eight Gold Mining Company NL took out a 6 month option over the mine later the same year, but also abandoned it. In 1935, the Universal Gold Development NL took out an option over 7 leases at 106 acres named as the Fairplay leases.

Later in 1935 the Sugar Gum Syndicate took over. The Sugar Gum syndicate came to a halt around 1937, as in October of that year all the plant and machinery was put up for sale. H. Solly is noted as working the mine with two men employed from mid 1937. Ore is being processed at the nearby Eundynie Mine mill at 700 tonnes a month.

In 1946, Oreb and Salinovich own the mine in one source. Several other sources state it is owned by Toni Oreb and Tony Tabain. They had been conducting mining operations during the war years. It is described at this point as a large low grade oxidised porphyritic ore body intersected with quartz stringers of various sizes.

In 1947, Bronzewing Gold Mines changed its name to Fairplay Gold Mines, and floated shares to develop the mine. At this time the deposit is described as stockwork quartz veins to 18 inches wide in all directions. From 1907 to 1946 the mine had produced 15 593 tonnes of ore at 2523.46 ounces of gold, averaging 3.2 dwt.

During the Bronzewing/Fairplay Gold Mines late 1940's period there is some question over how effectively the mine was being managed. Several workers were injured. The Assistant Mine Manager was charged with stealing quicksilver from the mine. It came to light from the court case, that employees were removing items as they saw fit. Five Huntington mills were erected, however they were not always all operational at the same time. A shortage of water limited production. The mine had largely always been through a vertical shaft, although a small open cut is noted at times.

The mine closed in 1950.

Tony Tabain, a Slav, regained ownership of the Fairplay Gold Mine in the early 1950's after the liquidation of the company that ran from 1947 to 1950. Tony Tabain operated the Fairplay Gold Mine on a small prospector basis, in partnership with another Slav, Mick Urlich, from the early 1950's to 1972, mining a small amount of the higher grade ore and attempting to re-treat the Fairplay gold tailings. However, his lack of education and lack of knowledge as regards the proper handling of cyanide saw him become ill from cyanide poisoning and he sold the Fairplay Gold Mine to John Nash, Frankie Nash (Johns wife) and Ron Nash in June 1972, so he could return to Yugoslavia - where he had a wife he hadn't seen for some 40 or so years!

The original Fairplay vertical mineshaft was still in place when John and Ron Nash took over the mine, and Tony Tabain and Mick Urlich had carried out some mining and exploratory work from this shaft (which was 112 feet - 34.13M deep).

However, the Fairplay Gold Mine Company, which commenced mining operations in 1947, had installed a decline shaft to gain access to the body of ore. The decline shaft ran approximately West to East at a relatively steep angle.
At the bottom of the decline, a large stope was developed and the relatively soft oxidised ore was dragged to the bottom of the decline by air winch scrapers and thereby hauled to a large and unique ore bin above the rotary Huntingdon (correct spelling!) mills, which ore bin had been constructed from original Kalgoorlie Water Supply Pipeline pipes that had been cut lengthwise and then bolted together to form the ore bin walls! This unique "Goldfields-style" ore bin was a popular photographic choice for many people over many years.

In late 1972, the Nash's purchased surplus Railway buildings from the original narrow-gauge Pioneer railway siding, which had recently been bypassed by a rail re-alignment during the installation of the Standard Gauge rail upgrade between Kalgoorlie and Esperance. The buildings from Pioneer, consisting of four fettlers huts (some of which dated back to 1907, when the narrow-gauge line to Norseman was installed), were relocated by N.B. Little and Sons of Kambalda, to the Fairplay Gold Mine, where they served as mine-site accommodation for the Nash family and their employees, until 1990, when the mine was sold to Jubilee Mines.

The Nash brothers organised for the Norseman State Battery to be restarted on 2 shifts in late 1972, as the battery had basically been on a "care and maintenance" basis for quite some time, occasionally crushing just small parcels of prospectors ore, due to a depressed gold price and a general lack of gold ore.

During several wet years in the mid-1960's, the roof of the main stope at the Fairplay Gold Mine had collapsed, and these wet years also saw the water table rise, thus flooding the original vertical mineshaft and preventing Tony Tabain and Mick Urlich from carrying out further mining operations from this shaft. I believe this event led to Tony and Mick becoming involved in the attempted retreatment of the Fairplay Mine gold tailings.

Upon purchase of the Fairplay, the Nash brothers, as owners of earthmoving and trucking equipment, immediately cut an access road and ramp to the bottom of the collapsed main stope and proceeded to mine the low grade ore from that area, operating a simple open cut, trucking it 60 kilometres to the 10 head Norseman State Battery, where the Battery Manager, R.H. (Dick) Dellar ably operated the Battery with several employees. The Norseman State Battery was almost fully occupied crushing the Fairplay Mine ore from 1972 to 1980, even going onto 3 shifts at one stage to increase crushing throughput.

However, the major increase in the Gold Price which peaked at over AU$800 in 1980, saw the Fairplay crushings reduce to virtually nothing, as other gold mine operators clamoured for access to the Norseman Battery - and the State Govt, alarmed at the vastly increased subsidy required to fund the vastly increased output of the Battery, raised the crushing costs from a highly subsidised AU$1 per tonne, to a more realistic AU$25 per tonne. These circumstances, coupled with a major drought and massive wheatbelt grain crop failure in 1980-81 endured by the Nash family, saw the Nash's take on three mining partners in 1983, to carry out a major gold tailings retreatment operation on the Fairplay Gold Mine tailings.

The three partners were John Proctor, Don Blaxell and Jim Smith. All of these three had had previous gold tailings retreatment experience. Initial retreatment involved the construction of leach vats by the Nash family, with their earth-moving equipment, and constant refining of the leach vat construction process and gold retreatment, until the Nash's became in demand for their leach vat construction skills.

Early gold recovery from the Fairplay tailings was carried out by the traditional zinc shavings process, utilising open-topped polyethylene Mauser drums interconnected with PVC piping. This gold process was soon refined by a change to utilising steel tanks and activated carbon, with the activated carbon tanks being stripped by professional activated carbon tank strippers located in Kalgoorlie.

In 1983, Samantha Mines NL and Samson Exploration NL, chaired by David Mueller, entered into an Exploration and Purchase Option of the Fairplay Gold Mine with John, Frankie and Ron Nash. This Agreement saw the Samantha and Samson companies drill the Fairplay lease to define a substantial gold ore body of around 600,000 tonnes, averaging over 2 grams to the tonne.
Upon receipt of the drilling results, Samantha Mines NL exercised their option and agreed to purchase the Fairplay Mine, making quarterly payments to the point where the Nash family had been paid a total of more than three fifths of the agreed purchase price, when a sharemarket raid upon the company saw David Muller lose control of Samatha Mines NL, and the company stripped of its cash assets, and the agreement to purchase the Fairplay Gold Mine torn up by the new owner of Samantha Mines NL - one Yosse Goldberg.

Full ownership of the Fairplay Gold Mine then stayed in the hands of the Nash family and the Fairplay Gold Mine went onto a care and maintenance basis for the remainder of the 1980's, while the Nash's went on with mining contracting and tailings retreatment, until the Fairplay Gold Mine was eventually sold to Jubilee Mines NL in June 1990.

From 1990, Jubilee Mines NL then tore out all the original 1950's Fairplay Mine infrastructure to excavate an open pit to access the ore body defined by the Samantha Mines NL drilling. This open pit operation reached the end of its life around 1994, when the ore body defined by Samantha Mines NL was worked out.