Jubilee Gold Mine, Tennant Creek, Barkly Region, Northern Territory, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Jubilee Gold Mine	Mine
Tennant Creek	Creek
Barkly Region	Region
Northern Territory	Territory
Australia	Country

The lease was first applied for on 19 October 1940 by Ken Shirley, who worked it until 1942. The source states the mine was then idle until 1948. Up to that point 509.24 tonnes of ore had been extracted for 259 ounces of gold at 8 dwt.

Another source states 100 tonnes was crushed by Shirley, Rodgers and Mill (surnames) in June 1948, with another crushing by them 3 months earlier. The Merloo Group put through 100 tonnes of development ore in 1955, for 64 ounces at 12.2 dwt. They stated the values of the ore body at the 100 foot level were very erratic. A 1993 report states the total produced to that time was 620 ounces of Au, and up to 500lb of Bi.

A 1954 source gives a detailed description of the workings, although the shafts were inaccessible, and it appears much of the information probably came from Shirley. The No. 1 shaft is the most westerly, sunk to 100 feet in brecciated ferruginous mudstone, with low Au values, but high in Bi. Some driving had occurred at the 50 foot level. No. 2 shaft is 120 feet east of No. 1, down to 45 feet, with a 35 foot drive to the west, containing high mineralisation. No. 3 shaft was the main working shaft, 120 feet east of No. 2, sunk on the Footwall lode, and connected by cross-cuts at 50, 75, 100, and 130 feet. A horizontal fault intersects the lode at the 100 foot level, displacing it 30 feet vertically, and 20 feet horizontally.

Country rock is interbedded greywacke, siltstone, and minor shale of the Warramunga Formation, intruded by quartz-feldspar porphyry bodies, up to 4 kilometres long. At Jubilee there is sheared and ferruginous sedimentary rock, with an easterly trend, with shearing, hosting gold and bismuth ore. The ironstone is jasperoidal, or quartz-hematite, as lenticular bodies, with sometimes cubic cavities where pyrite once was.

According to maps, the mine site is (was?) right where the Alice Springs-Darwin railway line is constructed, 10 kilometres north-west of Tennant Creek. No evidence could be seen of workings, and the Mindat map is approximate.

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References