Britannia Well gold area, Jumbulyer Goldfield, Mount Magnet, Mount Magnet Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Britannia Well gold area	Area
Jumbulyer Goldfield	Ore Field
Mount Magnet	Mountain
Mount Magnet Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

A sign at the un-marked entrance road to this area off the Yalgoo-Mount Magnet Road, would indicate the local station owner does not welcome visitors to this area. He has apparently had trouble with people from the Mount Magnet town taking sheep for food from the property.

South of the Hillcrest mine and north-west of Yoweragabbie Homestead. The area is centred on the major north-south trending Britannia Well Shear, with historic workings and modern prospects straddling the contact of granitoid intrusives and the Boogardie Formation BIF/chert.

There are about 30 historic workings in this area of the goldfield dating from the 1890's. Most are hosted by BIF's and sheared mafic rocks, associated with the major north-south trending faults and shears along the Britannia Well shear zone. In the north part of the shear, Metana Minerals discovered a small gold resource of 28 000 tonnes at 2.7 Au which has never been mined.

The area was briefly explored by Dundas Gold NL in 1983. Then by Brunswick NL from 1985 to 1987, with rock chip sampling. They located the Possum prospect at 8 g/t, Kangaroo prospect at 5.6 g/t, and Emu prospect at 5.8 g/t. All are on the western side of the shear.

The central part of the shear is occupied by a concentration of shafts and workings called Faircloughs Reward, last mined in the late 1980's. Gold was found in east-west striking veins.
Just south is a group of workings called Olden and just east another group called Thomas' Patch. Further west between the shear and the Yoweragabbie Station access road is a group of scattered shafts called Sovereign.

In 1993, Peregrine Exploration drilled 96 holes in the area, discovering it claims significant anomalous gold zones. Matlock exploration 1994 explored the south and south-east sections of the area. Mount Magnet Gold NL between 1998 to 1999, with an agreement with the owners at the time of the leases, the Golden Bug Syndicate, did further exploring. Since around 2007 Mount Magnet South NL has owned the tenements, 9 in total covering 751 ha, but have done little with the area. They have explored south-west parts of the goldfield. It is common here for mining companies to lock up vast tracts of land as mining tenements, then do little with them.

Most of the Britannia Shear is under soil and BIF scree. The shear zone is bounded to the east and west by post tectonic intrusive granite and granidiorite. Rock types in the shear zone are the Boogardie Formation of BIF/chert, mafic intrusives and schist, intruded by younger felsic porphyry and felsites. The felsic intrusives are brecciated, silicified and tourmalised.

Gold is hosted in the Britannia Well shear zone, and associated structures and splays, and a number of sub-parallel faults and shear zones. Gold is also associated with other silicified and chloritic shears within and along the margins of adjacent granitoids, and has been the source historically of coarse gold mined on a small scale by local prospectors.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References