Higginsville Goldfield, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Higginsville Goldfield	Ore Field
Coolgardie Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Higginsville is an abandoned goldfields locality named after prospector Patrick Higgins. The site is 45 kilometres north of Norseman, half-way between Norseman and Widgiemooltha on the Coolgardie-Norseman Highway. The mines in the area are at the southern boundary of the Coolgardie Shire. Higginsville as a town is no longer in existence, and now represents several gold mines in the area lumped together under the name Higginsville Gold Mines. Each mine however has its on name as well.

The palaeochannel gold deposits were discovered by soil sampling by Resolute Resources in the late 1990's. The Higginsville mine was in operation in the 1990s, its mill ceasing work in October 1997. Mining continued until early 2000, with ore being milled at the Chalice Gold Mine.[7] The mine was then owned in parts by the St Ives Gold Mining Company, a subsidiary of Gold Fields, who had also purchased the nearby St Ives Gold Mine from WMC Resources in 2001.[8]

After discovering the Trident deposit in late 2004, Avoca built a new mine at Higginsville. In 2007, Avoca purchased the neighbouring Chalice deposit from Chalice Gold Mines Limited. Gold production at the mine begun in 2008 from underground operations. Production: 131,227oz (2008-09)


Avoca Resources paid A$6.25 million to Gold Fields for the Higginsville Mines in June 2004. They discovered the major Trident deposit late 2004, and this mine opened in 2007. Also in this year they purchased the Chalice deposit from Chalice Gold Mines Ltd. Production began here underground in 2008.

In 2010, the probable reserves announced by Avoca for the area was 5.7 Mt at 3.9 g/t yielding 711 000 ounces of gold, increased to 1.33 million ounces in 2011. The Higginsville operations contain a 1.3 Mtpa CIP plant, 300 person village, 2 underground mines being Chalice and Trident, and several shallow palaeochannel gold abandoned pits.

Alacer merged with Avoca Resources in early 2011. Metals X acquired the mines in September 2014 for A$40 million.

Primary mineralization is associated with second order fault splays from the Zuleika Shear. Two structures, Poseidon South Fault and Mission Fault are bounded by a major metasediment sequence dominating areas between the Challenge-Swordsman and Mitchell Channels. These are hosted to the east and west by high Mg metabasalts and ultramafic rocks, intruded by gabbro dolerite and felsic porphyry, steep dipping and striking north north-west.

For palaeochannel deposits, gold is found at the base of the Tertiary sediments in sand, grit and conglomerate. The source of the gold is unclear. Gold is found in granules which release gold like a slow release garden fertilizer maintaining the gold anomaly.

Geochronology

Mineralization age: Neoarchean : 2631 Ma to 2611 Ma

Important note: This table is based only on rock and mineral ages recorded on mindat.org for this locality and is not necessarily a complete representation of the geochronology, but does give an indication of possible mineralization events relevant to this locality. As more age information is added this table may expand in the future. A break in the table simply indicates a lack of data entered here, not necessarily a break in the geologic sequence. Grey background entries are from different, related, localities.

Geologic Time				Rocks, Minerals and Events
Precambrian
	Archean
		Neoarchean		ⓘ Molybdenite (youngest age) 2611 Ma Chalice Gold Mine, Higginsville Goldfield, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australia ⓘ Molybdenite (oldest age) 2631 Ma Chalice Gold Mine, Higginsville Goldfield, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australia

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References