Selkirk Gold Mine (Dublin Castle; Coronation; Menzies Proprietary; Dublin Proprietary), Menzies, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Selkirk Gold Mine (Dublin Castle; Coronation; Menzies Proprietary; Dublin Proprietary)	Mine
Menzies	- not defined -
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The earliest date and probably original prospectors was the Wilson's Octagon Syndicate in early 1895 which controlled several leases known as 'The Hills', including the Friday, Robinson Crusoe and Selkirk, all in the general area west of the present First Hit open pit.

Later in the same year, the Menzies Gold Reefs Proprietary Ltd was floated in London to acquire the leases, with 175 000 pounds capital. Altogether there were seven leases totalling 122 acres. German geologist Bergrath Schmeisser was dispatched to investigate the company's new assets. The Selkirk had at this point an inclined shaft to 120 feet deep on the south side of a reef 1 foot wide. He dismisses the rest of the lease as largely worthless.

The general area contains many small leaders, which the company did not find worthwhile to pursue and abandoned the lease in 1900. These leaders started near the surface as a few inches, and would gradually widen at depth to 4 feet wide, before thinning again, and pinching out altogether.

It was then pegged by a local syndicate. At this point there appears to be two leases, adjoining each other called the Dublin Castle and Menzies Proprietary. Both had been pegged by syndicates of working miners. Dublin Castle by Dan O'Dea, Richard Scott, G. Brown, and F. Woosnam, while the Menzies Proprietary was worked by Mackay, Richards and Meyers. The Dublin Castle had three relatively shallow shafts.

It appears Richard Scott, along with his brother Joseph (possibly also Arthur), became paramount, and had taken over ownership of both leases by 1911. The name was changed to the Coronation. The last activity reported by them was in 1913. Since 1905 the mine had produced 2335 tonnes of ore for 2848 ounces of gold at 25.2 dwt. It had produced about 40 000 pounds money-wise of gold in early Twentieth Century figures.

During the 1930's gold boom, interest was again shown in the lease, this time named Dublin Proprietary, however nothing was found that active mining took place.

In 1997, a small open pit was developed by Paddington Gold, with the ore transported for processing to their plant near Broad Arrow.

The total produced during the mine's underground period was approximately 5000 tonnes of ore at 24.0 g/t yielding 3858 ounces of gold. During the recent open pit development, 42 000 tonnes of ore was extracted at 4.60 g/t yielding 6212 ounces of gold. The remaining resource is 18 000 tonnes of ore at 8.95 g/t yielding 5201 ounces of gold.

Selkirk is a small south-west plunging deposit, within amphibolite rocks, and consists of 1 quartz vein extending 40 metres along strike and up to 2 metres wide, with a small alteration zone. Pyrite and arsenopyrite are the dominant sulphides, with some chalcopyrite, galena, and sphalerite.

Gold is hosted in fine grained mafic amphibolite, and talc-chlorite schists. The eastern amphibolite section is separated from the western ultramafic section, by a thin black shale unit.

The large west dipping, south plunging, 1 to 2 metre wide quartz vein has developed where two shears in the ultramafic schists have converged. The ore zone also contains conjugate sets of north-south, and east-west vein arrays, within a north-west trending biotite zone. The ore contains pyrite, pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite, galena, sphalerite and unspecified copper compounds.

The open pit is 1.6 kilometres north-west of Menzies, bordering the north side of the Menzies-Sandstone Road.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References