Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	28° 42' 5'' South , 121° 10' 59'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-28.70162,121.18320
GeoHash:	G#: qdyhtx4bv
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BWh : Hot deserts climate

In 1940, two long time prospectors discovered the Puzzle deposit. Robert ('Bob') Dowson had travelled from Daylesford Victoria in the early 1900's, and with his prospecting partner Bert ('Herb')Cottingham, spent the next 40 years prospecting the northern goldfields. The Puzzle find was a final reward for persistence late in their age.

The mine was located on a ridgeline 200 yards long and 12 feet high of schist and quartz. They dug several shallow shafts no more than 20 feet deep, and alluvial workings. Only one shaft, dug in 1945, went deeper to 50 feet where water was encountered.

Crushings were 1940: 134 tonnes, 150 ounces 22 dwt, 1941: 614 tonnes, 399 ounces, 23 dwt, 1942: 240 tonnes, 345 ounces 13 dwt, 1943: 130 tonnes, 141 ounces, 21 dwt, 1944: 212 tonnes, 309 ounces, 34 dwt, 1945: 275 tonnes, 370 ounces, 27 dwt, 1946: 265 tonnes, 134 ounces, 10 dwt, and 334 ounces from the sands.

Until 1943, ore was carted 20 miles to the Reefers battery. After this a battery was purchased from the Innuit lease, and its owner William Seaborn brought into the partnership. A cyanide plant was also erected.

At the end of 1947 they sold the mine, however Dowson did not enjoy retirement long, dying six months later, and is now buried in the Leonora cemetery.

The mine had been sold to a party of five miners, being Vic Parora, Con
Patroni, Giorgi, Rocchi, and Cioli. Crushings by them were found until 1950.

The mine is 25 kilometres north of Leonora, and about 2 kilometres west of the Goldfields Highway. A little used track connects the mine to the highway. The Rainbow Gold Mine is 500 metres due west, and large King of the Hills (Tarmoola) north north-west by 5 kilometres . Numerous isolated historic shafts, and small groupings of shafts litter the area. An irregular shaped, small shallow pit now marks the site, it would appear from more modern times.

Commodity List

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

Mineral List

2 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

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

Archean 2500 - 4000 Ma ID: 712348

ultramafic and minor mafic rocks 74475 Age: Archean (2500 - 4000 Ma) Description: Tremolite-chlorite-talc amphibolite, metapyroxenite, pyroxenite, peridotite, serpentinite, ultramafic schists, komatiite, high-Mg basalt; also chalcedony, silica, jasper, silcrete, silica cap rock on ultramafic rocks Comments: igneous ultramafic intrusive; meta-igneous ultramafic volcanic; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous ultramafic intrusive; meta-igneous ultramafic volcanic 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: 3188638

Archean volcanic and intrusive 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