Excelsior Gold Mine, Bardoc, Broad Arrow Goldfield, Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Excelsior Gold Mine	Mine
Bardoc	- not defined -
Broad Arrow Goldfield	Ore Field
Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The deposit was originally discovered by the Martin brothers around 1894. The mine was soon taken over by Alf McDonald and Cross. They are credited with being the first to discover gold earlier, and naming the site Bardoc. A group of aborigines had stolen stores from their camp. They were tracked to the Bardoc area with the help of a Eucla aborigine in their company who went by the name of Fred McGill. What happened to the aborigines was never talked about by the three again, and can only be assumed the outcome was not good. The party discovered gold in the area on the way back to their camp.

Two stories came to light. The tribe were known as the Bartooks which was later corrupted as Bardoc. The name was supplied by McGill, who stated the word means 'bad blackfellow', in the Eucla area native language. None of this can be confirmed.

McDonald and Cross discovered the Hill End mine at Broad Arrow, from which they became incredibly rich. They then spent it just as fast. Local folklore stated the party hired a private train to take them to Albany as they felt like a swim. The Excelsior mine achieved 6030 tonnes for 41 130 ounces, mostly during McDonald/Cross' reign. This amount would set up most prospectors for life. Yet they abandoned it in 1902 broke and severely in debt, indicating their wild spending days were not behind them. Employees were left with considerable wages owing which they never received.

Between February 22 to 25 1901, four battery plates were stolen. In 1904, the mine was caught up in an ore stealing case levelled at William Percy Bennett and Louis E. Clayton. They produced receipts for the ore purchase from the Excelsior Mine, and mine manager Arnott confirmed Clayton had purchased seven bags of slag from the mine. The problem was the ore contained much telluride which had not been found in the Bardoc area. It was assumed the ore had been stolen from the Golden Mile Kalgoorlie, and the judge sentenced them to six months imprisonment with hard labour.

McDonald had travelled to London to float a company but failed. He returned and set up a 5 head battery and cyanide vats, and they began working the mine themselves. The battery crushed for many local mines. Water was obtained from the Golden Bardoc lease. Mine manager was W. McLellan and then Alfred Augustus Arnott. When the lease was abandoned he with Reville took it up, and there was active crushing from 1902 to 1904 by them.

Mid 1906, the leases 1186 and 1187 Excelsior are in the name of Clayton and the Rintoul brothers. The battery, leases, and another lease at Comet Vale are put up for auction.

Between 1987 to 1991, Aberfoyle Gold developed a wide shallow pit at the site. As of 2016, Excelsior Gold Ltd, plan to conduct renewed mining at the location, along with several other locations in the area. They had originally planned to expand the open pit, in the process realigning the railway line and Goldfields Highway further east. The latest plan is underground mining, to avoid this. A defined resource
of 456 100 ounces remains at the site, 11.10 Mt ore at 1.28 g/t.

The mine is located 300 metres north-east of the Zoroastrian mine. It is hosted by a sequence of tightly folded and sheared ultramafic and sedimentary schists, within the Excelsior Shear Zone. Gold is found in a broad 20-50 metre wide zone of intense alteration, now represented by quartz-sericite-carbonate schists. The Excelsior Shear is a major regional north north-west trending structure on which several gold mines in the area are located.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References