Mount Palmer Gold Mine (Palmer's Find), Yellowdine, Yilgarn Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Mount Palmer Gold Mine (Palmer's Find)	Mine
Yellowdine	- not defined -
Yilgarn Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Gold was discovered here by Southern Cross prospector Augustus Palmer late 1934. It came long after many of the gold discoveries in Western Australia, the main period in the 1890's. Directly east of the location, and stretching a fair distance north-south is the Yellowdine salt pan, which was generally bypassed to the north by people on their way to Coolgardie/Kalgoorlie. The area contains thick scrub which also helped to conceal the gold outcrop.

His initial discovery drew little attention until a backer J.S. Whinfield had the specimen stone tested. Then there was a rush. Leases were pegged far and wide, many on ground with no hope of finding gold.

Mining occurred here from 1934 to 1944. A major player was the Yellowdine Gold Development Ltd, part of the DeBernales group, a gold promoter during the 1930's gold boom, who garnered generally more money from London investors with his slick marketing than actual gold. Their main shaft eventually reached 500 feet, and employed up to 160 men at its height.

According to a 1949 Government report, the field produced 304 234 tonnes of ore for 155 375 ounces of gold. Production figures may have been higher, as official results are often short of the real figure.

A 1935 newspaper report states at the time the small area of the lode contained ten shafts, heaps of ore, and several corrugated buildings occupying the crest of the hill. Much of the work was alluvial with these miners finding nuggets up to the size of a penny, with fairly evenly distributed gold down to two feet. The town of Mount Palmer grew up near by. Little remains other than the arch of the once massive hotel here. It was demolished in 1947 but can still be seen in a way, as the material was used to build a department store, which is now the Bankwest building on Hannan Street in Kalgoorlie.

World War Two had an impact on gold mining in Western Australia, as the cost of supplies rose, and available labour decreased. By 1944 the ore bodies had been worked out and the mines closed.

Near to the old townsite is a designated camping area. Outside of school holidays during winter, you will probably have the place to yourself. It can be found by taking a sandy road immediately east of the Yellowdine Roadhouse on the Great Eastern Highway. The track heads due south for about 10 kilometres. If the road closed signs on this track are off putting, then there is another access point along a gravel road from the west. Information signs are scattered around the site, with tunnels, pits, old mining equipment etc to explore.

Milky coloured quartz reefs at Palmer's tend to be barren, while gold can be found in sugary quartz, vitreous quartz and associated with arsenopyrite. The deposit occurs in a greenstone belt on the eastern limb of a major anticline. It is folded on a north-west axis, pitches south-east, and is overturned to the east. The greenstone is bounded to the west by gneiss, and cut by abundant pegmatite dykes, that post-date the gold deposition. Mineralisation is found in bedded quartz reefs, within mafic volcanics, in sites controlled by cross folding and/or drag folding, producing a saddle shaped reef.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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