Edna Beryl Gold Mine, Tennant Creek, Barkly Region, Northern Territory, Australia

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	19° 18' 27'' South , 134° 12' 31'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-19.30762,134.20874

So much gold has been found at this mine, it is surprising the promise of modern mining took until 2017.

The deposit was discovered by prospectors in 1935, and mined until 1942, although names were not found. Until this time the mine had produced a substantial for the goldfield 4 428 ounces of gold.

Former heavy-weight boxer, Alexander McDonald took over the lease in 1940, but the mine was forced to close in 1942 due to the war. McDonald in 1939 had sold his interest in the Black Angel mine elsewhere in the district for a substantial sum. He returned to the Edna Beryl mine in 1946, and during the late 1940's to early 1950's, would receive money from options to a string
of companies. This included Carbonate Lead, Burma-Malay Tin, Red Terror, Sesame and Falcon companies. However, without intimate knowledge of the deposit, they failed to uncover much gold, with McDonald resuming mining operations, usually finding a fortune.

In 1946, he arrived in Darwin with a pickle jar full of gold nuggets. Examples of crushings included of 249 tonnes yielding 1015 ounces of gold, 111 tonnes ore for 717 ounces. Several buckets of ore yielded 160 ounces of pure gold nuggets. One writer stated there was some dirt with the gold.

McDonald made so much money, he owned two of the best houses in Tennant Creek, two houses in Adelaide, sponsored boxing championships with belts studded with gold nuggets from the mine, bought a new buick, purchased a Northern Territory cattle station, and went on several holidays. One working trip to Papua New Guinea, after the war, he purchased for one pound a Japanese underground hospital for salvage rights, morbidly containing the bodies of three thousand Japanese soldiers.

William Bernard King (42) died after falling 100 feet down the main shaft in 1951. In 1947, three miners from Edna Beryl were injured when their car coming from the mine was involved in a crash with a semi-trailer. The source alludes that the truck driver was drunk behind the wheel. He had been involved in a crash near Darwin one month earlier, killing one person, and injuring five.

To 1952 the mine had produced 2700 tonnes of ore at an impressive grade of 53 g/t. Explored 1996-2000 by Giants Reef Mining finding additional gold under the historic workings. They sank development shafts, and 410 ounces of gold was extracted between 2004-2005.

Emmerson Resources started drilling in 2016. The first drill hole showed gold at 8 metres @ 157 g/t, 5 metres at 251 g/t, 2 metres at 613 g/t, and one metre at 1043 g/t. The hole also produced silver up to 229 g/t, although no geology information has been found so far to explain the silver. Subsequent drilling found lower values, but still at grades most junior explorers can only dream about. The word 'bonanza' was used commonly.

Emmerson estimates the deposit contains 5000-10000 tonnes of ore at 20-30 g/t, however the figures are non-JORC compliant. Mid 2017, shafts had been sunk, and plant installed, with plans to mine ore in the near future. The company has experienced management, and the underground mining is being undertaken by EBM (formerly Craigs Mining Services), who also sank shafts at the mine during the Giants Mining period. Emmerson has produced much marketing material, but little geology. Drilling results are impressive, and the deposit may represent a high grade, but small, short lived profitable enterprise.

The company states there are four ironstone lodes, named Ironstone 1, 2 and 3, which coalesce at a depth of 160 metres, to a larger mass called Ironstone 1 (formerly EB Deeps). The brecciated ironstone contains free primary disseminated gold with hematite, chlorite, and locally pyrite and chalcopyrite. The ironstone is enclosed by brecciated mudstone, with small hematite inclusions, grading to massive hematite on the south side of the lode.

Mineral List

4 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

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

Orosirian 1800 - 2050 Ma

Warramunga Formation Age: Orosirian (1800 - 2050 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Warramunga Formation Description: Tuffaceous arenite/wacke ("metagreywacke") and siltstone; shale, including argillaceous banded ironstone ("haematite shale"); slate. Comments: sedimentary siliciclastic; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Sedimentary siliciclastic 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

External Links