Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	21° 52' 37'' South , 120° 6' 11'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-21.87720,120.10317
GeoHash:	G#: qsj7t12kn
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BWh : Hot deserts climate

The first note found was 1891, stating a prospector by the name of McKenzie (surname) had discovered a reef, and was applying for a reward lease. Crushings were not found until early 1896 by D. Richardson.

Later in 1896 a local syndicate called the North West Australian Goldfields Mines took over, constructing a battery some distance away on the Nullagine River. Regular crushings for gold was then found by the company across 1897. The battery initially was only working five hours a day due to a lack of water, although it is later stated this problem had been overcome. It lacked a cyanide plant. Jason Isdell is mine manager. Several tunnels had been driven into the hill.

March 1896, 32 diamonds were recovered from the battery boxes, the largest half a carat. 30 more were found a month later. July 1897, 16 small diamonds were found in the battery boxes, the largest again half a carat. Spiro Achimovich, South African diamond expert arrived later in 1898 for the Lady Forrest syndicate and found several more diamonds at Barney's Hill.

The mine is one of several one to two kilometres north north-west of the Nullagine town site. Information relating to other mines would indicate it was at the southern end of the field, just north of the Grant's Hill Mindat locality. The area is heavily disturbed by bulldozing from the activities of modern exploration and mining companies. Map approximate only.

Commodity List

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

Mineral List

2 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

Neoarchean 2500 - 2800 Ma ID: 3186668

Archean sedimentary and volcanic rocks Age: Neoarchean (2500 - 2800 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Fortescue Group Comments: Pilbara Craton Lithology: Mafic volcanic rocks; shale 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]

Archean 2500 - 4000 Ma ID: 840068

Mosquito Creek Formation Age: Archean (2500 - 4000 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Mosquito Creek Formation Description: Lower part: interbedded conglomerate, massive coarse-grained sandstone, siltstone and shale: Upper part: thinly bedded sandstone interbedded with siltstone and shale; metamorphosed. Comments: sedimentary siliciclastic; argillaceous detrital sediment; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Sedimentary siliciclastic; argillaceous detrital sediment 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