Endurance Mine (Scheelite Show), Hatches Creek Wolfram Field, Hatches Creek, Barkly Region, Northern Territory, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Endurance Mine (Scheelite Show)	Mine
Hatches Creek Wolfram Field	- not defined -
Hatches Creek	Creek
Barkly Region	Region
Northern Territory	Territory
Australia	Country

The Endurance wolfram mine is south-east of the Pioneer mine, at the northern end of the field. It is a few scattered lodes, marked by several shallow pits, at least in the late 1950's when inspected. Scattered minor workings can be seen bordering the south side of the Kurundi Road (Binns Track) 200 metres south-east, and extending east several hundred metres a little north of the road.

Early history is not known, and is first mentioned in the records in 1941 as the 'Scheelite Show'. By this stage the mine was already closed. It re-opened between 1952-1956. The leaseholder during this period was leaching concentrates with hydrochloric acid in 44 gallon drums, reducing the bismuth which was viewed as an impurity. However, carting large amounts of the acid into remote Hatches Creek, was too expensive (probably a good outcome for the environment as well).

The value of the wolfram was low due to the impurities of other minerals in the deposit. Lodes are found in the sheared and altered Pedlar Gabbro, and sandstone, greywacke, and siltstone of the Hatches Creek Group sedimentary rocks.

The two most major lodes are described being 250 and 150 feet long, dipping 55-70 degrees south, 4-14 inches wide. Ore is wolframite and the more abundant scheelite, with up to 10% bismutite, and minor un-named copper minerals. The deepest shaft only went to 40 feet. The lodes contain an unusually large quantity of epidote (zoisite), as radiating clusters of pale to dark green needle-like crystals. Ryan goes into some detail describing the structures of the two lodes.

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