Great Bear Gold Mine, Tennant Creek, Barkly Region, Northern Territory, Australia
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| Latitude & Longitude (WGS84): | 19° 35' 15'' South , 134° 23' 40'' East |
|---|---|
| Latitude & Longitude (decimal): | -19.5875908826, 134.394475098 |
The original lessee who pegged this lease could not be found, but a year later in 1936, the Melbourne Bitter Gold Mining Syndicate NL secured an option over the lease. At this stage the workings consisted of two adits totalling 110 feet into the hill, with one crushing of 75 tonnes for 70 ounces. The syndicate had also taken options over the Little Wonder and Star Stranger leases in the area. The syndicate planned to form the Golden Star Gold Mines NL to work the deposit but no more was found.
The mine was probably the haunt of prospectors over the years, but it next comes to public attention in 1949. Dave O'Grady, with his seventeen year old son Michael O'Grady had travelled from Townsville to take over the lease from Bert Barker. After several months of hard work, hard living and hard drinking, they had little to show for their efforts, and decided to return to Townsville. Matters got worse when Michael accidently shot himself with a rifle at Great Bear, and later died in hospital.
Total production reported by 2002 for the mine was 331 tonnes of ore at 18 g/t for 450 ounces of gold.
Another large gap of information exists until 1987 to 2002, when the Giants Reef Mining Ltd conducted limited, and lack lustre exploration, as a joint venture with Asarco Gold Pty Ltd.
The mine is about 23 kilometres east of Tennant Creek. A 4 wheel drive track heads east from the repeater station, just east of the town, passing several old mines, until an isolated hill is reached. The track continues to the Blue Moon Gold Mine. The remains of the adits, and small open cuts are just behind the bluff, at the north-west end of an ironstone ridge. The mine is found in a shear zone, underlain by the Warramunga sedimentary rocks. A further few hundred metres north-east appears to be the remains of more workings, possibly a collapsed shaft or stope, above a small dam.
Mineral List
2 valid minerals.
Rock Types Recorded
Entries shown in red are rocks recorded for this region.Note: this is a very new system on mindat.org and data is currently VERY limited. Please bear with us while we work towards adding this information!
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References
News newspaper (Adelaide) (1936) Melbourne Bitter Secures Option at Tennant Creek, 27/03/1936.
Centralian Advocate newspaper (Alice Springs) (1949) Tennant Creek Notes, 22/07/1949.
News newspaper (Adelaide) (1936) New Gold Co. Planned for Tennant Creek, 02/04/1936.
Simpson, P.G., Russell, S. (2002) Final Report for MCC223 Great Bear of Period 16 September 1987 to 06 June 2002, Giants Reef Mining Ltd, September 2002.
Centralian Advocate newspaper (Alice Springs) (1949) Tennant Creek Notes, 22/07/1949.
News newspaper (Adelaide) (1936) New Gold Co. Planned for Tennant Creek, 02/04/1936.
Simpson, P.G., Russell, S. (2002) Final Report for MCC223 Great Bear of Period 16 September 1987 to 06 June 2002, Giants Reef Mining Ltd, September 2002.
