Monarch Gold Mine, Boogardie Goldfield, Mount Magnet, Mount Magnet Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Monarch Gold Mine	Mine
Boogardie Goldfield	Ore Field
Mount Magnet	Mountain
Mount Magnet Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

P. McLean of Bendigo tells us about the early years of this mine which started out as an alluvial field around 1892. Men covered the ground, digging holes looking for nuggets. One of the last to arrive set up in the only vacant patch left. He struck a leader, but many of the men as part of these gold rushes knew little about gold. Another man passing said' you have a mullocky leader'. The other answered ' what is that!' After explaining, he was invited to join the other man to work the deposit.

A mullocky leader in this instance was a kaolin body containing fine gold. The mine was near the Morning Star, and is likely now incorporated into the modern day large open pit. The mine was once very rich, and a lot of expense over the next year was spent developing it. They imported in an Otis crusher, which subsequently went to the New Chum Mine. Another machine ran on kerosene, and required six men at the flywheel to get it started. Sometimes it would start with a rush sending men flying in all directions. The machinery was eventually abandoned to the elements.

Specimens from the mine were delivered to the office of A. Forrest, St Georges Terrace Perth. M.J. Ford and Attwood (surname) had formed a mining syndicate called the Monarch Gold Mining Company, with plans to float a company in London. A journalist who viewed the specimens swooned:

'The samples form a most interesting collection. There is sufficient to stock a small museum, and for richness they compare well with any yet exhibited. The rock is kaolin, specimens dotted all over with fine gold. There are also fine specimens of quartzite and jasper, the former at 60 oz/t. In the collection are also two alluvial nuggets 10 oz and 7 oz. Some specimens are simply bound together by gold. 200 tonnes of gold yielding kaolin is at grass. '

Indeed the writer wishes more, for that matter anyone, would have heeded this journalist's advice. Most Western Australian gold in now sitting as gold bars in Swiss bank vaults.

According to McLean it was a rich mine, forfeited less than two years after its discovery from bad and expensive management.

Like a lot of the mines in the area, the reefs underground were accessed in 1896, by individuals and syndicates with money and effort to dig deep shafts. The reef at Monarch was said to be 600 metres long and 6 feet wide, in places expanding up to 14 feet. It was part of the Venus lode, the Venus mine bordering the lease to its north. The shaft eventually reached 100 feet deep, sunk at the bottom of the open pit dug during the initial mining period in 1892/1893. Some crushings went through the New Chum battery in 1897.

The Mindat co-ordinates are approximate, and is one of many historic mines in this small area destroyed when the large Morning Star pit went in.

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