Paringa Gold Mine (Paringa Extended; Croesus South), Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Paringa Gold Mine (Paringa Extended; Croesus South)	Mine
Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines	Group of Mines
Kalgoorlie-Boulder	- not defined -
Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Paringa Mine is now part of the greater Super Pit operated by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Pty Ltd.

The Paringa Mine first commenced in the late 1890s and was probably the precursor to the super pit.

Paringa was a small mine on the Golden Mile operating between 1898-1951.

It started in 1898, when three Golden Mile leaseholders decided to amalgamate, and pool their resources to develop a mine. They were Hannan's Sir John Forrest Gold Mines Limited, Hannan's Paringa Gold Mine Limited, and Cassidy Hill Coolgardie Mines Limited. They formed Paringa Consolidated Mines Limited.

Shortly after forming they acquired two further leases on the Golden Mile, however even with these the grand total was only 93 acres that the company controlled.

After forming they got on with the business of mining with little fuss for the next five decades. It was decided to develop in 1898 the Paringa lease (24 acres) as it was surrounded by properties where incredibly rich ore lodes had been uncovered over the previous two years.

However, their mine accessed a wide, irregular, and largely low gold grade lode. As such the mine never reached the heady heights in its early days like others on the Golden Mile. Most years they made a profit and paid dividends, but no-one got incredibly rich.

The Paringa lease had Cygnet and True Blue leases of Hannan's Brown Hill Company to its east, Iron Duke lease of the Associated Northern Block as its southern boundary, and the North Kalgurli Mine to its west. There were two shafts at Paringa- Main North and Main South.

The company tried to protect its position by diversifying. At the 1926 shareholder meeting, the chairman mentioned the company had interests in a Rhodesian gold mine, a Bolivian rubber plantation, and a brown coal deposit in Victoria Australia. In 1923 it took over the Daisy Queen gold mine at Lawlers, and partly owned the Hazel gold mine at Siberia. (gold miner humour- its in the desert north-west of Broad Arrow).

In 1936 it had an option to buy the North Kalgurli Central Gold NL but abandoned the plan. It experimented in treating its ore at other plants like North Kalgurli, however in 1938 it constructed a new treatment plant, which was expected to treat 100 000 tonnes per annum.

It developed the Paringa Extended lease in 1939, north of the main mine. The shaft at Paringa Extended was called Federal at 500 feet deep. The lease used to be called Croesus South and was owned by the Paringa Extended Syndicate. In 1943 Paringa Consolidated Mines acquired two leases on the Golden Mile south of Mount Charlotte.

The company made profits in the late 1940's, but 1950/51 saw losses. It sought Commonwealth Government financial assistance, but even with this the Paringa Mine closed in 1951. It highlighted the fragile nature of the company's finances. In 1952 shareholders recommended the company be wound up and assets distributed. The board rejected this pinning their hopes on the development of the Wheal Fortune lead mine at Northampton, Western Australia. The company was still in existence in 1982, when a minor name change is recorded, but no information could be found on its activities. It appears to have been recently re-incarnated as Paringa Resources Limited with exploration assets in Brazil.

In 1952 it sold all its Golden Mile leases, plant and equipment to Gold Mines of Kalgoorlie Australia Limited for a measley 85 000 pounds. At some stage surface mining resumed as KCGM states there was a Paringa Pit when its Superpit gobbled up everything in its path on the Golden Mile. No other recent mining information could be found. Gold Mines of Kalgoorlie Limited merged with Normandy Limited in 1996. At the time Normandy was one of the partners developing the Superpit.

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