Hopeful Star Gold Mine, Tennant Creek, Barkly Region, Northern Territory, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Hopeful Star Gold Mine	Mine
Tennant Creek	Creek
Barkly Region	Region
Northern Territory	Territory
Australia	Country

See also Hopeful Star East, and Hopeful Star Extended Mindat localities which are adjoining leases.

The Hopeful Star Gold Mine started like many others in the Tennant Creek area around 1935, achieving 445 tonnes of ore for 211.86 ounces of gold by mid 1936, although who is mining is not mentioned in the sources. The mine is still reported active in 1939. Bill (William) Haddock aged 67 is next noted at the mine, working alone, said to be making tucker money only, putting through small crushings at the Tennant Creek battery in the late 1940's and 1950's. Up to 1952 the mine had produced 1615.42 tonnes of ore for 170.5 ounces of gold. Another recent source states the mine achieved around 700 ounces across the history of the mine.

P.G. Dunn explored the deposit in 1963, but no drilling took place. P. Cohn conducted drilling in 1965, although he was not the leaseholder. In 1969, BMR sank a 12 metre shaft. Geotechnics Australia mapped and sampled the mine August 1970. The underground workings were inaccessible by this stage. This consisted of two 15 foot deep shafts, a small pit, and adit.

Tennant Creek Gold NL acquired the lease in 1987. In 1988 it entered an exploration joint venture with Metana Minerals, who exited the scene in 1989.
From 1991 to 1996 the lease was held as a joint venture between Tennant Creek Gold NL, Roebuck Resources and North Flinders Mines. In 1996, the lease was optioned to PosGold. From 1996 it entered a joint venture with Normandy Tennant Creek Pty Ltd. Western Desert Resources have held the lease since until recent times, but appears to have conducted little activity.

The Hopeful Star mine is on a west plunging overturned syncline with minor folding, with en echelon east trending, vertical dipping, quartz-hematite (ironstone) bodies parallel to the synclinal axis. Associated with the ironstones is shales and sandstone of the Warramunga Formation impregnated with hematite, and a breccia horizon. The breccia contains rounded hematite nodules, angular shale, greywacke, and siltstone fragments in a quartz-hematite matrix, with minor carbonate. The workings are adjacent to a shear zone.

Gold is found in ironstone ore bodies on the southern limb of the anticline
(another source states on the northern limb of the anticline) where shear zones intersect with siltstone and mudstone. Stringers and veins of mineralised quartz form stockworks close to the surface. Visible gold is present it is claimed by one relatively recent source. Gold is restricted to a pod less than 200 metres from the surface.

Jasper is mentioned as small blebs 2-3 inches in diameter, associated with abundant quartz veins, and some specular hematite. The mine also contains a bedrock Cu anomaly, and bismuth soil anomaly. The mine is on the south-east side of a conical shaped mesa, which is capped by breccia containing another quartz-hematite body.

The Hopeful Star Mine is approximately 20 kilometres east of Tennant Creek. It is reached by a rough track called the Pigeon Holes Road which leaves the repeater station, just east of Tennant Creek. The mine is one kilometre south of this track, at the south-east base of an isolated small mesa. The site appears extensively bulldozed, with a large deep trench, although this may refer to the former Hopeful Star East and Hopeful Star Extended leases. The southern side of the mesa has been cut away, probably as an exploration exercise.

References

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