Bronzewing Mine (Bronzewing-Mount McClure Mine), Bronzewing Goldfield (Mount McClure), Leonora Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Bronzewing Mine (Bronzewing-Mount McClure Mine)	Pit
Bronzewing Goldfield (Mount McClure)	Ore Field
Leonora Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

This page is currently not sponsored. Click here to sponsor this page.

PhotosMapsSearch

The Bronzewing Gold Mine is located 83 kilometres north-east of Leinster, and was discovered by prospector Mark Creasy in the late 1980's.

He sold the lease in 1991 to Great Central Mines for $115 million, earning him an entry into the Guiness Book of Records for the prospector with the richest payout for a mineral discovery. Part of this money was used to buy significant collections of Western Australian minerals, including the Borner Collection and Blair Gartrell Collections. These he donated to the Western Australian Museum and Kalgoorlie's Miners Hall of Fame. Information on Mark's life can be found by visiting the Miners Hall of Fame.

After initial strong gold recoveries, the mine has had a chequered ownership history. The mine opened in 1991. Great Central Mines was taken over by Normandy Mining in 1999, then in turn taken over by Newmont Mining Corporation in 2002. Between 1991 and 2004 the mine produced 3 million ounces of gold from eleven open cuts and two underground operations. These extend some 30 kilometres south of the Bronzewing mine.

At the Bronzewing location itself, is the Discovery pit, and immediately north of this the Central pit. Both caused mining companies much grief, by not achieving gold grades predicted. Immediately north of the pits is the plant, and next to this east is the Laterite Pit, which as the name suggests is a very shallow near surface open pit. The airstrip and mining camp are a kilometre to the north-east.

View Resources purchased the mine in 2004, and initially placed it under care and maintenance, before re-opening it again in 2007. Ore was mined from two pits (Success and Central), and two underground declines (Discovery and Calista). By 2008 gold recoveries were below expectations, and View Resources eventually went into liquidation.

Navigator Resources purchased the mine in 2009, with mining starting the following year, but again gold recoveries were below expectation, and the company went into administration in March 2013.

The mine is located in the Yandal Greenstone Belt, 250 kilometres long by 40 kilometres wide. The Belt also holds the Jundee and Darlot mines, along with several other smaller mines and prospects.

As the mine is located in the Bates Creek drainage area, the surface contains a significant amount of alluvium 80 to 120 metres in depth from the surface. It contains ferro-saprolite grading to saprolite lower down, composed of kaolinite, smectite and quartz. The ferruginous saprolite is yellow brown to red brown in colour, dominated by kaolinite and goethite. Mottled saprolite further down is red hematite pseudomorphing other minerals. The saprolite also contains iron nodules, quartz, clay and silt. Relict chlorite, feldspars, calcite, mica and pyrite are also found in more minor amounts. Gold is found in the lower levels of the alluvium. Copper, silver and tungsten is also found but appears to have no direct relationship to the gold.

Fresh rock is encountered 80 to 120 metres from the surface. It contains iron rich tholeiitic basalts and dolerite units, with lesser ultramafic, felsic and sedimentary sequences. The area shows early thrusting following by three stages of deformation, with gold mineralisation associated with the final deformation stage. The high iron content of the host rocks favours the formation of iron sulphides caused by iron from the wall rock, with sulphur from the mineralising solution. The loss of this sulphur causes destabilization of the gold-sulphur complex leading to the precipitation of gold. The tendency of the host rock to fracture easily when subjected to water pressure also contributes to the high gold grades of these deposits.

Gold is found in association with quartz veins and pillow basalts. While the veins are sulphide poor, locally abundant pyrite has been found, with pyrrhotite, minor chalcopyrite, scheelite and visible gold. The deposit contains little in the way of supergene enrichment.

On June 26 2000, 18 000 cubic metres of slurry broke through a storage area and flooded the underground workings, trapping and killing three mine workers at the 450 metre level.

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

Mineral List

20 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded