Kurnalpi Goldfield, Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Kurnalpi Goldfield	Ore Field
Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Gold was discovered here by Alex Slater and party in 1894, 95 kilometres north-east of Kalgoorlie. The goldfield produced incredibly rich alluvial gold in its initial years and was known as the 'home of slugs' referring to the large slug shaped gold nuggets lying around all over the ground.

Kurnalpi is mainly known as a rich alluvial gold area, rather than a reefing location. Large slugs were found scattered across the flats and gullies by early prospectors. The largest area historically was Social Flat, near the former Kurnalpi town site, as a large flat area, with several tributing gullies. Two miles north of the town site is a discontinuous belt of alluvial gold. A site called Cemetery, south-east of the town also saw large nuggets obtained. The source also mentions a location called Six Mile.

These locations consist of red soil lying on a largely barren cement (hardpan). Some ironstone nodules, angular quartz, and cement nodules are found just above the cement in deeper areas. Generally the cement was 4-6 inches to 4 feet below the surface.

Normally the gold mineralisation would be expected to increase with depth, but this did not occur at Kurnalpi. By 1900 it was noted that the alluvial gold had pettered out and people began drifting away. A 1902 correspondent stated:'with the exception of a few unimportant shows, worked by small parties of men, the place has little to recommend itself to public notice. Once the initial goldrush was over, the place fell silent.

The area has a large number of shallow historic workings of various names which include but not restricted to: Richies, Kug, Success, Brilliant, Scottish Lass, Dazzle, Sparkle, Discovery Hill. Modern mining companies have named Halfway Hill, Colour Dam Pit, and Kurnalpi South as locations, apparently not discouraged by the lack of historic underground gold.

The area was explored in the 1970's by Amax Exploration (Australia) Inc, Aquitaine Australia Minerals Pty Ltd, Esso Exploration and Production Australia Inc. Further exploration has been conducted in the early 2000's by Carrick Gold and Fairstar Resources.

Regionally the geology is a lower basaltitic unit, overlain by Komatiite, followed by an upper basalt unit, then a sequence of felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, overlain by clastic sedimentary rocks. The volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks have been altered to quartz-sericite-carbonate-pyrite in association with quartz-sulphide vein arrays developed within the shear zones. Minor copper, lead and zinc has been found.

What is rarer than gold in a desert? Newspapers reported snow falling at Kurnalpi early in October 1900.

The area is mostly scattered bulldozed shallow scrapes from modern prospectors and exploration companies. Mainly north of the Kanowna-Kurnalpi road, with a few exceptions. About nine of these were counted, (some relatively extensive) anywhere from one to ten kilometres from the road. Only two sections were identified as retaining significant historic workings, being in the edge of a large area of scrapings at the far northern end, and another line of old shafts a short distance south of the road.

The town of Kurnalpi no longer exists.

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References