Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	30° 11' 23'' South , 119° 7' 33'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-30.18970,119.12592
GeoHash:	G#: qdssqb0u5
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BSh : Hot semi-arid (steppe) climate

The Mount Jackson gold mine was by far the largest producer historically on the field. It is not near Mount Jackson (the hill), which is presently occupied by an iron ore mine, but rather near the Mount Jackson homestead ruins.

One kilometre south of the Windarling mine haul road and Bullfinch-Evanston Road intersection, take a track north-west from the latter road. This track passes Allen's Find, then heads west and south-west. About one kilometre before the ruins, is the mine site. Several shafts and alluvial workings can be found in a north-south line either side of the track. The remnants of the battery sands are at the northern end. Further workings about 100 metres north is the old Victoria gold mine. It is remarkable seeing pictures from over one hundred years ago of large battery plants, and how little remains at these types of sites today.

The mine was developed shortly after gold was discovered in the area in 1894. In fact, it was the first company floated on the field, as the Nil Desperandum. Within a year they had changed names to the Mount Jackson Gold Mining Company. The company was reconstructed in 1897, and 1902. It was a London concern. Yet again it was reconstructed in 1906, but this time local Western Australian shareholders failed to rally to support it, and the mine closed in 1908.

A couple of tributing parties subsequently conducted some shallow depth mining. In 1914, the main shaft at 400 feet was flooded to 130 feet of the surface. A Melbourne syndicate was looking at re-opening the mine but nothing more is heard, and the site is largely abandoned for the next 20 years. The mine is on three reefs but little geology information was found. The Geological Survey of Western Australia report on the goldfield in 1911, completely ignores the site.

The 1930's gold boom, led to a re-assessment of the mine. The Mount Jackson Gold Mines Ltd was formed. Initially ore was crushed at Bullfinch and a small battery at Marda, but by 1935 they had erected their own battery. Ore was being taken from several shafts named A to F. Prosaic mine reports are regularly produced to 1938. Mid 1938, and it is announced gold values did not meet expectations and the mine was closed, and let on tribute.

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

Mineral List

5 valid minerals.

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Quaternary 0 - 2.588 Ma ID: 798821

colluvium 38491 Age: Pleistocene (0 - 2.588 Ma) Description: Colluvium and/or residual deposits, sheetwash, talus, scree; boulder, gravel, sand; may include minor alluvial or sand plain deposits, local calcrete and reworked laterite Comments: regolith; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Regolith Reference: Raymond, O.L., Liu, S., Gallagher, R., Zhang, W., Highet, L.M. Surface Geology of Australia 1:1 million scale dataset 2012 edition. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia). [5]

Neoarchean - Mesoarchean 2500 - 3200 Ma ID: 3187519

Archean volcanic rocks Age: Archean (2500 - 3200 Ma) Comments: Yilgarn Craton Lithology: Greenstone belt; mafic-ultramafic volcanic rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References