Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	30° 17' 1'' South , 120° 53' 35'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-30.28375,120.89324
GeoHash:	G#: qdtgwzpb2
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BSh : Hot semi-arid (steppe) climate

The mine was originally developed by a private syndicate, consisting of Dr Freidman JP, J. Freidman, Nat Freidman Jnr and H. Bennett, from 1897. H. Bennett, and Nat Freidman were both mentioned as mine managers at different points.

The original syndicate sank a shaft to 180 feet, but found much water inflowing at the bottom. It was a mixed blessing. It made mining more difficult, and expensive pumping equipment needed to be installed. On the other hand, it provided water for a battery, and a five head battery was installed in 1898, and cyanide vats in 1901. Three crushings had been produced up to 1898, and activity is found across 1899 to 1901, then all goes quiet.

The sands were cyanided in 1912, probably by James Correll, who is noted at the mine the year before. He conducted mining at the site intermittently for the next 25 years. The lease was forfeited to the Crown in 1920 for non payments of rent. The battery and cyanide plant remained, but was rarely used. Correll was fined 100 pounds in 1928, for using the cyanide plant which at the time was unregistered.

Regan (surname) was at Siberia during the early days. Later he left but returned to prospect in 1938. At this point he contacted James Correll, who knew both him and Regan's father, and Correll gave him a lot of information about the Pole mine. Regan produced a trial crushing from the mine, but then the war years intervened. On April 25 1947, he left Sydney, with his mining mate Rash (surname),and Regan's two sons who had just been discharged from the army. One month later, towing a one tonne trailer they arrived at the Pole mine, they re-named the Pamela.

In quick time they sank a 165 foot shaft 7 x 4 feet, and cross cut to the shoot. In the process they cut into the old workings, and their efforts were flooded with water which had accumulated since the mine had been abandoned decades before. There was an intention of producing crushings for the Ora Banda state battery but no information was found.

The mine is about 3 kilometres west south-west of the Siberia Consols mine. This is found on the Theil Well mine road where it turns sharply from south-west to south. The track to the Pole continues straight on in a west south-westerly direction. Half way there is a fork in the track, take the left track. There is a square battery sands remnant, and bulldozed area probably from a modern metal detecting exercise.

Commodity List

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

Mineral List

1 valid mineral.

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

Cenozoic 0 - 66 Ma ID: 738909

ferruginous duricrust 38498 Age: Cenozoic (0 - 66 Ma) Description: Ferruginous duricrust, laterite; pisolitic, nodular, vuggy; may include massive to pisolitic ferruginous subsoil, mottled clays, magnesite, reworked products of ferruginous and siliceous duricrusts, calcrete, gossan; residual ferruginous saprolite 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: 3187518

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