Daisy Queen Gold Mine (Queen), Agnew Goldfield (Lawlers), Leonora Shire, Western Australia, Australia
| Latitude & Longitude (WGS84): | 28° 4' 53'' South , 120° 31' 37'' East |
|---|---|
| Latitude & Longitude (decimal): | -28.08157,120.52705 |
| GeoHash: | G#: qej8nxvhg |
| Locality type: | Mine |
| KΓΆppen climate type: | BWh : Hot deserts climate |
The Daisy Queen Gold Mine is an abandoned water filled open pit, just south-east of the Lawlers mining camp.
Early information is in short supply. The lease was initially called Queen. It is thought to have been one of the early leases pegged after gold was discovered in the area in 1894. In 1901, the lease was taken over by the East Murchison United company. Northern Mines limited are noted operating the mine from at least 1908. They had a central 40 head battery 1 kilometres from Daisy Queen, and were bringing in ore by tramlines from several locations including the Waroonga and Donegal leases.
From 1913 to 1920, the Branson brothers operated the mine, and crushed ore from their own 5 head battery erected in 1915. In 1920, they sold the mine to the Hampton Daisy Gold Mining Company, who changed the mine name to Daisy Queen. A 10 head battery and cyanide plant was erected. The main shaft was down to 230 feet, with levels at 80, 140 and 210 feet.
April 1922, John Elsbury resigned as mine manager, to be replaced by A. East. The mine was not a happy investment for the company. The ground was hard granite, with a heavy inflow of water. There was a lack of capital to develop the mine, which closed down mid 1923 after a labour dispute with its engine drivers. To this point the mine had produced 3955 tonnes of ore for 1480 ounces of gold.
Through the next 18 months, the company kept the mine un-watered in the hope of selling it to another company . The end came on the 22 December 1924, when in the middle of the night, fire destroyed the battery, two gas engines, and surrounding buildings. At least officially the Hampton Daisy Gold Mining Company said the fire had been triggered by an explosion in the gas producers.
The 1930's gold boom, saw activity again at the lease. A new 5 head battery was erected in 1932, although labour troubles and material shortages caused several delays. Mining occurred intermittently until 1937.
The deposit is located in the Lawlers Tonalite, near the hinge of the broad north trending Lawlers Anticline. Biotite can be up to 20% of the rock volume at the mine. The intensity of the foliation varies with a well developed north-east trending vertical fabric in the centre of the pit, associated with the central Caroline Shear. Sheared pods of leucogranite and metagabbro xenoliths are also present in the pit. Quartz veins dip moderately north-west, with north-west trending faults cutting the major north-east trending shear zone.
Commodity List
This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.Mineral List
2 valid minerals.
Rock Types Recorded
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Alphabetical List Tree DiagramRegional 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
| Quaternary 0 - 2.588 Ma ID: 873228 | colluvium 38491 Age: Pleistocene (0 - 2.588 Ma) Description: Colluvium and/or residual deposits, sheetwash, talus, scree; boulder, gravel, sand; may include minor alluvial or sand plain deposits, local calcrete and reworked laterite 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: 3188638 | Archean volcanic and intrusive 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
