Evanston Gold Mine, Diemals Station, Menzies Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Evanston Gold Mine	Mine
Diemals Station	- not defined -
Menzies Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Evanston was only discovered in 1937, by prospector Arthur Charles Evans. The remote location, lack of water, and overlying alluvium cover hid the deposit for a period of forty years after many of the other locations in the Eastern Goldfields were discovered.

The Evanston mine has an estimated JORC resource remaining of 735 000 tonnes of ore at 3.6 g/t yielding 85 000 ounces of gold.

Soon after the discovery the deposit was acquired by the three Ridge brothers of Kalgoorlie. In two years they had extracted over 100 000 pounds worth of gold. Up to 65 men were employed. A five head battery, ball mill, engine, cyanide plant and concentrating table were all erected. The lode dips gently then remains flat at the 100 foot level. Much of the early mining was at the Hanging Wall, which later in the 1940's caved in.

The total the brothers produced to 1943 was 48 125 tonnes of ore for 25 848 ounces of gold. Western Mining Corporation had drilling options on the leases early on.

The mine was then taken over by the Commonwealth government in 1943. During the war years the Australian government took over several mines it viewed as important for national security, however it is unclear how a gold mine could fit into this category, unless they were selling the metal to the enemy. Between 1943 to 1945 the mine was on care and maintenance.

Evanston Gold NL was floated in Adelaide in 1945 to take over the leases, 18 in total amounting to 200 acres. The leases contained several shafts down to 100 metres, and a sand dump of 50 000 tonnes worth 6 dwt. The main lode was rich in parts, but parallel reefs found were generally of low value to sub-economic. The ore has a high arsenic content. Gold is found in lenses, covering a length of over 1 kilometre.
Free gold is found in ironstone, with the country rock being sedimentary strata overlaying fine grained greenstone, the shear striking north-west to south-east, 8 to 10 feet wide.

The company entered the realm in a blaze of publicity, everyone keen to see life return to normal after the war. The company lasted until 1948, when the receivers were called in.

A collection of 1987 photographs in the State library shows a small processing plant at the mine, prospectors shack, old shafts, various building ruins, old machinery, and a sand pile which appeared to be in the process of re-treating.

Sometime after this three shallow pits were developed on the oxide ore. The mine is about 5 kilometres south of the Evanston-Bullfinch, and Evanston-Menzies road junction, and borders the first road on its east.

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