King of Creation Gold Mine, Erilstoun Goldfield, Laverton Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
King of Creation Gold Mine	Mine
Erilstoun Goldfield	Ore Field
Laverton Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The King of Creation Gold Mine is 50 kilometres north of Laverton, and 2 kilometres east of the Erilstoun Road. It is marked by an abandoned pit and tailings heap. There is also a trench adjacent immediately north.

The pit was developed by Ashton Gold between 1988 to 1990, when mining ceased. A total of 811 000 tonnes of ore was extracted for 57 700 ounces of gold at 2.2 g/t.

The mine was also active from the very early Twentieth Century until 1937, and intermittently by prospectors subsequently until the modern pit development.

The deposit was discovered around 1897 by W. Clark and his brother Bob, and Peter McNee, employed as a prospecting party for the Venture Syndicate.

State Mining Engineer Montgomery was noted as visiting the site in 1904, then Government Geologist C.G. Gibson in 1906. The site was abandoned at the time of Gibson's visit. Montgomery states it was a jasperoid lode with iron stained cellular quartz through portions of it. A shaft had been sunk to the water level at 108 feet deep. The reef was 27 feet wide, and generally low grade, making cartage of ore to the Laverton battery unprofitable for most of the lode.

In 1909, the lease is reported abandoned, and was re-pegged by A.M. Doyle and Jack Brophy. Doyle was an accountant at the Asia Bank at Kalgoorlie and later opened the bank's branch at Laverton. He then decided more money could be had in gold mining than banking. Brophy was a publican at Laverton. They mined the deposit for eight years.

In April 1917, the Tyrconnell North Company of Melbourne took an option over the mine, but abandoned it in February 1918. It was then re-pegged by Harry Raven in 1922. Raven was previously developing leases at the northern end of the Golden Mile at Kalgoorlie. He took Gibson's advice in developing an open cut at King of Creation. This open cut eventually reached a depth of 94 feet and a length of 500 feet. A five head battery was erected. To 1929, the mine had produced 1599 tonnes of ore for 657 ounces of gold, however only one source was found confirming production during the period.

During Raven's time, the mine was optioned to a newly floated Adelaide company in 1923, who had raised 50 000 pounds capital. (GML 4171T and 4175T) In 1932, it was being sampled by a Melbourne syndicate. Then shortly after, held under option by Broken Hill Proprietary, who also abandoned it seven months into their twelve month option.

Mining entrepreneur, Charles de Bernales took over the mine early 1936, however by mid 1937 had abandoned it, laying off fifty employees in the process.

The mine is located on the east limb of the Mount Margaret anticline in greenstone. The strain increases towards a major dextral shear zone within the centre of the pit, assumed to have hosted the gold. The deposit suffered a period of north-east to south-west contractions, showing as foliations, sheath folds, veins, mylonites, boudins, mullions, and more discrete faults and conjugate veins. North north-west trending porphyry dykes have intruded the sequence. The centre of the shear zone shows multiple phases of deformation and transposition under a significant dextral regime, while the margins of the pit are less so. The straining has formed a north north-west trending narrow mineralised corridor 50 metres wide. The principal gold control event is dextral transpression. A late extensional collapse completes the sequence of events.

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