Belle Maie Gold Mine, Mulline Goldfield, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Belle Maie Gold Mine	Mine
Mulline Goldfield	Ore Field
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Belle Maie adjoined the Lady Gladys lease to the west. The historic workings are likely to have been swallowed up by the modern pit or buried under tailings.

The Belle Maie, Lady Gladys and Gladys Junction were all discovered at the same time around 1897. A dispute arose. At the time alluvial workings could be undertaken by other prospectors on a pegged lease, as long as it was a certain distance from the reef, which only the leaseholders could access. A rush occurred and one hundred men all arrived on the field and started to dig. The warden was sent to sort out the mess. He determined it was an alluvial find, but the three leaseholders could mark out their reefs, and had first preference in pegging a lease.

J.A.T Kneese pegged out the Belle Maie on behalf of the syndicate he represented. 18 acres. The next year he applied for an injunction with the warden. D. Taylor and John Langford had begun digging shafts and driving, including one which had connected with the Belle Maie workings. Kneese claimed their blasting operations were interfering with his mining, and was unable to spread his dump. Taylor and Langford claimed it was a lode formation with no defined reef, and were therefore allowed to work close to Kneese's operations. The warden determined in Kneese's favour.

It would appear Kneese had discovered a lode formation with no real reef. One source states it was earthy magnesite, stained with iron oxide, and showing gold. Others state it was granular quartz. Kneese himself states only a lode formation had been uncovered. The second crushing at the state battery was virtually all lode formation with little in the way of quartz. It filled the battery tanks with sludge, and the battery manager refused to accept any further crushings from the mine.

Subsequent years the mine was let out to tributers, until mining was suspended in 1909.

In 1913, Buxton, McAlpine and Ravenshill worked the mine for a year with a lot of dead work, before discovering a small leader carrying gold.

The mine produced a total of 3457 tonnes of ore for 3623 ounces of gold.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References