Great Boulder Mine (Phantom Lode; Great Boulder South; Great Boulder North; Great Boulder Extended), Golden Mile Mines, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire, Western Australia, Australia

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The Great Boulder Mine was the first large scale mine on the Golden Mile, and considered the largest and richest on the field. (Measurements are imperial in keeping with the historic references).

The town of Boulder (as in Kalgoorlie-Boulder) was named after the mine.

Visitors to the underground workings in the early part of the Twentieth Century wrote in amazement at seeing ore shoots loaded with fine grained gold. One writer wrote the battery was barely keeping up with gold being processed from the access tunnels, let alone the ore shoots. In 1929 the mine had extracted the most gold of any location in Western Australia. In 1940 it was noted as the second largest producer to that point in Australia.

The discovery of gold at Hannans, just north of the Golden Mile, led to the greatest gold-rush in Australia's history. After only a couple of years of frenzied activity, by thousands of individual miners, the alluvial gold had been exhausted.

British speculators successfully floated the Great Boulder and Lakeview Mines in 1895 to access the rich underground reefs. The Great Boulder Gold Mines Limited was formed at this time, unitl it ceased as a company in 1972.

In 1895, the workings were described as the Number One Boulder South Shaft at 100 feet deep, and the Christmas Eve Shaft. The reporter describes climbing down strong wooden ladders with iron rungs to view a lode three feet wide. The mine alone at this time employed fifty men. He described the above ground operations as the size of a town. Poppet legs 40 feet high, large boiler, engine house, stables, sawmill, 10 head battery, office accomodation, and stores selling provisions to the miners.

The underground, then general manager of the mine from its early years to the mid 1930's was John Warrick. After 1900 the shafts were called Hamilton (2650 feet deep), Main, Lane and Edwards. In 1950 they were named as Doolette, Main and Edwards as still operational. Doolette is named after an early chairman of the company (Sir George Philip Doolette), but it is unclear if this was a new shaft, or re-naming an existing one. Records show in its first five years of operations, two kilometres of shafts were sunk with thirty kilometres of drives off the shafts.

Between 1895-1931 over four million tonnes of ore was processed for almost the same amount in ounces of gold. Dividends amounted to 3524% of the initial capital invested. The company had produced 15 million pounds of gold monetary wise, and 7.5 million pounds in profits. (This is early Twentieth Century figures-imagine how much this would be in todays prices).

In 1933, the company owned 109 acres on the field, consisting of the Great Boulder, Great Boulder South, Great Boulder North, Great Boulder Extended, and Ivanhoe West leases. It employed 510 men and 120 tributing parties.

The company directors rejected in 1933 a purchase offer by neighbouring Lakeview and Star Limited. Instead in subsequent years they embarked on an expansion programme. This included new roasters, compressors, underground locomotives, trucks, electrifying the 2650 foot level, an overhaul of the underground workings, re-timbering shafts, renovating the main mill building, installing a 50 foot Dorr thickener, and installing Oliver filters which filter the gold solution from the crude ore cynanidation. Also new lodes were uncovered at the 1650 and 1800 foot level when two collapsed tunnels were opened from the Main Shaft, and also 580 feet below the 2650 foot Hamilton Shaft.

Information on Golden Mile mines enter a black hole in the public domain after World War Two. A number of reports mention the mine was operational during the 1950's and 1960's. By 1976, all mines on the Golden Mile had ceased operations due to low gold prices. The mine restarted again in 1980. In 1972, Great Boulder Gold Mines Limited (re-named Great Boulder Mines Limited in 1957), was purchased by Western Mining Corp Limited. From this time to 1989 they operated an open pit accessing residue ore from the upper levels of the old mine. In 1989 it was purchased by KCGM and the mine (as with all on the Golden Mile) was incorporated into the Superpit.

Mineral List

Altaite Arsenopyrite Berzelianite Bornite Chalcopyrite Clausthalite

Coloradoite Covellite Eucairite Galena Gold Hematite

Hessite Ilmenite Krennerite Magnetite Melonite Pyrite

Sphalerite Sylvanite Tennantite Tetrahedrite Umangite Weissite

24 entries listed. 24 valid minerals.

References