Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	29° 1' 14'' South , 120° 30' 27'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-29.02060,120.50765
GeoHash:	G#: qdvdyhyyz
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BWh : Hot deserts climate

The Forrest Belle Gold Mine was historically the most important gold mine in the Mount Ida section (as opposed to the Copperfield section) of the goldfield. 10 acres.

Its early years are unclear. That it was originally called Mount Ida Reward would indicate it was the initial gold discovery in the area in 1895. The mine produced up to the mid 1930's, approximately 6000 tonnes of ore for 5100 ounces of gold.

In 1908, it is stated the mine had several owners since 1900, the present ones being Errington, Hawkins and Peddie (surnames). The lease at this time contained ten shafts ranging from 30 to 110 feet deep. The lease had three parallel lines of reef, trending north-south, vertical, 1-6 feet wide, averaging 10 dwt. Copper was found associated with the gold in the lodes. There was also a small vein of pure galena on the lease.

In 1934, the Mount Ida Gold Mines Ltd was formed to acquire options over the Forrest Belle, Forrest Belle North and Forrest Belle South mines. A syndicate of ten shares with 5000 pounds capital was formed. It was a small amount of money.

To June 1938, they had extracted 340 tonnes of ore from the 250 foot level of the Walker's Shaft. The ore was sent to the South Kalgurli Mine on the Golden Mile Kalgoorlie for treatment. However, they found the same situation that had beset the rest of this goldfield from the very beginning. The ore shoots while rich were very short, separated by barren ground. By the end of 1938, mining had ceased, and the following year the company was in liquidation.

In recent decades an open pit was developed at the site, but information is needed. The mine is 500 metres north of the Boudie Rat open pit. It is one kilometre north of the Leonora-Mt Ida Road and the Mt Ida state battery site.

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

Neoarchean - Mesoarchean 2500 - 3200 Ma ID: 3187518

Archean volcanic 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]

Archean 2500 - 4000 Ma ID: 709849

Forest Belle Gabbro Age: Archean (2500 - 4000 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Forest Belle Gabbro Description: Coarse-grained gabbro with clinopyroxene olkocrysts; metamorphosed. Comments: igneous mafic intrusive; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous mafic 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