Princess Royal Gold Mine, Norseman, Dundas Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Princess Royal Gold Mine	Mine
Norseman	Town
Dundas Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Princess Royal Gold Mine was 10 kilometres north north-east of Norseman, between the Eyre Highway and the Lake Cowan salt-pan. There were several shafts on a north-south trend in the 1890's, however it is pointless going into a detailed description of the workings, as the area has since been destroyed by the large North Royal open pit, the former workings in the southern section of the pit.

In the late 1890's, the Princess Royal was one of the richest mines in the Norseman area. Dividends amounting to 116 000 pounds had been provided to shareholders between 1897 to 1904, and it was the first company on the Norseman field to pay dividends. The mine was equipped with a 20 head battery and cyanide plant. Strong pumping equipment was needed due to the heavy inflow of water into the underground workings. There was little understating of the geology of the deposit at the time, the underground workings following quartz reefs as they were found. T.A. Butefisch was mine manager until 1910.

The company who developed the deposit was originally floated in Adelaide in 1895 with 40 000 pounds capital. It owned two leases totalling 34 acres, being Princess Royal at 22 acres and Princess Royal extended to the east. The original prospectors, Chester, Peddler and Flanagan (surnames), only opened a cross-vein in the centre of the former lease. Crushings started at the battery in March 1897. To 1906, it had crushed 5112 tonnes of ore for 11 359 ounces of gold.

By 1911, mining had halted. The mine manager notes at this time, most of the gold had been won from the surface to 400 feet deep, and below this was a large body of low grade ore. Little appears to have happened after this for several decades. The mine was used as a water source for the Phoenix battery constructed by Central Norseman Gold near Norseman in 1936. However more mining took place in the 1970's, as the annual report for Central Norseman at the time notes two thirds of the 101 048 ounces obtained in 1976 had come from the Princess Royal mine. In later decades the North Royal open pit became paramount and swallowed up the Princess Royal workings.

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