Ulysses Gold Mine, Tampa, Kookynie Goldfield, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Ulysses Gold Mine	Mine
Tampa	- not defined -
Kookynie Goldfield	Ore Field
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Ulysses Gold Mine is the most northern of the mines in the Kookynie Goldfield. It borders the east side of the Goldfields Highway, just north of the junction with the road to the Butterfly and Orient Well Mines. The Ulysses open pit was developed by Sons of Gwalia in 2002, producing 266 358 tonnes of ore at 2.92 g/t yielding 24 985 ounces of gold.

While some small nuggets had been found with metal detectors in the area, the deposit was a modern discovery with no old workings. The area had been explored by about thirty companies between 1970 to 1989. The site had been quarried for road base by the local council, unaware of its gold potential. With some justification, it can be said the roads in the area were paved with gold (please do not start digging up the roads in the Menzies Shire).

It was not discovered by the old timers, as the deposit was covered with colluvium and laterite duricrust. The regolith extends down 3 metres from the surface at the western section of the deposit, and 15 metres in the eastern section. It is composed of colluvium, Fe duricrust, ferricrete, pisolithic gravels and Fe clays.

Fresh rock is mafic fine grained basalt and dolerite. The dolerite rocks are magnetite rich, and contain quartz and porphyry. The foliated schistose mafic rocks host the shear zones, that control the gold distribution. Intermediate rocks include silica oversaturated mafic rocks at the centre of the deposit. All lithologies show epidote alteration, and minor disseminated or vein type pyrite mineralisation.

The deposit is a series of short stacked veins, controlled by shear structures, dipping 30 degrees north-east. There are seven shear structures, but economic grades of gold only occurs where these structures meet. Gold was mined as an open pit from the central area bordering the east of the highway. It is part of a 2 kilometre envelope, mainly directly east of the highway, and to a lesser extent west.

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