Golden Age Gold Mine, Menzies, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Golden Age Gold Mine	Mine
Menzies	- not defined -
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Golden Age Gold Mine is 2 kilometres south of Menzies, and borders the east side of the track between the Lady Harriet and Lady Shenton open pits. It is just south of the Africander mine. The area is much disturbed mullock piles, tracks and cleared spaces.

The Golden Age Company was formed in London in 1895. Until 1899, they sank five shafts, the deepest to 260 feet. Water entered the workings at the 173 foot level. A 10 head battery was erected. The company followed a short rich east-west trending shoot down to 80 feet before it petered out. Much exploration was then done, but when no further payable gold was found the company abandoned the lease. This original period saw 292.5 tonnes extracted for 1059 ounces of gold.

For part of this time Robert Ballard was mine manager. He arrived in New South Wales from England in 1859. As a railway engineer, he became known in New South Wales and Queensland, for building railways under time and budget. He was mining surveyor on the Gympie Goldfield in Queensland, before being involved managing mines in the Menzies area.
He wrote The Solution of the Pyramid Problem (1882), and Man's Blood Guilt (1906). Described as a classical scholar, extremely irritable with a raucous voice. He kept a revolver on him at all times, including to bed. His brother, Johnnie, was exactly the opposite. Ballard's hessian office was full of bullet holes. He would let off rounds, if Johnnie showed any tardiness when called upon. The poor man lived in constant fear of his life.

The Ballard salt-pan, north-west of Menzies is named after Robert Ballard. Here, artist Antony Gormley convinced 51 Menzies residents to strip naked and be laser scanned. The 51 life sized sculptures are now dotted around a small part of the salt-pan.

Some alluvial gold was found on the Golden Age lease in 1898 by W. Richardson. It was on the east side of the Golden Age Hill. Every man and his dog deserted Menzies for the gold rush. A number of small nuggets were recovered above thick cement (hard-pan).

In 1906 the Menzies United Company abandoned their lease at Menzies and took up the Golden Age, finding little gold at depth.

In September 1925, Menzies prospectors Collier and Riley acquired the lease after it had been idle for 25 years. Six men were employed. They found much gold still remained in the workings. From 1927 to 1933 they extracted 1006 tonnes of ore for 3250 ounces of gold.

Collier and Riley sold the mine to a Perth syndicate called the Golden Age Mining Company. They within a year had floated the Golden Age Amalgamated NL with 120 000 pounds capital, who took over the syndicate and leases 5613Z Golden Age, Two Dicks, Little Wonder, The Nugget, Baden-Powell, P.A. 1632Z, P.A. 1633Z, 5614Z Florence and 5600Z Maori Chief leases. Total 104 acres. Subsequent mining was focussed on the Maori Chief.

The mine from 1896 to 1936 has produced 1080 tonnes of ore at an incredibly high 104.7 g/t yielding 3635 ounces of gold. There is no recorded mining since 1936.

The deposit is at the margin of a felsic porphyry and amphibolite rocks, trends north-south, dips 70 degrees west and plunges south-west. Pyrite and arsenopyrite is dominant, with minor chalcopyrite, galena, and sphalerite, and shows biotite alteration.

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