Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	21° 10' 53'' South , 119° 45' 9'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-21.18146,119.75264
GeoHash:	G#: qsjpt011n
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BWh : Hot deserts climate

Considered the original lease at Marble Bar. Ted Francis, Bill Edmondstone, and Harry Jenkins, had travelled from Queensland, via the Kimberley, and found themselves in the Pilbara in 1891. Early that year they discovered alluvial gold in gullies, and were able to work the area for several months before being discovered by other prospectors. They named the area Marble Bar, and pegged a lease they called the Stray Shot. Their first crushing of 280 tonnes of ore achieved 1100 ounces of gold. The mine had many owners over the years.

In July 1894, a five head battery was erected, which also crushed for the public. This remained the area's main battery until the first world war years. In 1898, Joshua Steel, took over the mine and battery on tribute.

Late 1890's, the Stray Shot Company was developing the mine, and running the battery. Hugh G. Neill, J.H. Church and Walter Kingsmill MLA were mine managers.

In 1900, Batten and W.C. Hand, purchased the battery, erected 3 x 50 tonne cyanide vats, and proceeded to treat the 8000 tonnes of tailings.

In 1903, the British Exploration and Development Company of Australasia Ltd took over the lease, but did little with it, other than letting it on tribute. The company was in liquidation by 1910.

E. Lewis had taken over the lease some years before, and put through several crushings. Lewis sold the mine to R. Wakeman and C. Jibson in 1911. J. Elston put through a crushing in 1912. Michie, Flack and party put through a crushing in 1913. Late the same year McLennon and Gotten (all surnames) put through a crushing, then in 1914 it was Cotton and Boyd. W. Campbell reprocessed the tailings again in 1921.

S. Lennard put through a 20 tonne crushing in 1950.

The mine is on the eastern outskirts of the Marble Bar townsite, just south of the entrance road, and Coongan Star mine. Prospector shacks and mining equipment are in the area.

Commodity List

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

Mineral List

3 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

Mesoarchean - Paleoarchean 2800 - 3600 Ma ID: 3189906

Archean intrusive rocks Age: Archean (2800 - 3600 Ma) Comments: Pilbara Craton Lithology: Intrusive igneous 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]

Paleoarchean 3200 - 3600 Ma ID: 749808

Homeward Bound Granite Age: Paleoarchean (3200 - 3600 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Homeward Bound Granite Description: Alkali-feldspar granite, local older diorite and granite; granitic dykes; intrusive rhyolite and dacite; granodiorite; interlayered granite and amphibolite; metamorphosed Comments: igneous felsic intrusive; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous felsic intrusive 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]

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

References