Palmerston Gold Mine (Invincible; Knight Commander; Camperdown; Hazel), Siberia Goldfield (Waverley), Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Palmerston Gold Mine (Invincible; Knight Commander; Camperdown; Hazel)	Mine
Siberia Goldfield (Waverley)	Ore Field
Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

The Palmerston Gold Mine these days is an elongated abandoned north-east to south-west trending pit. This covers several leases in the old days, and some name changes.

It was initially discovered as a deep lead, being fine gold found at depth in granular soil at 30 feet. Under this was oxide ore, until the relatively shallow depth of 50 feet, where heavy sulphide took over.

Palmerston was a relatively insignificant lease on the line of lode, but has been chosen when the modern pit was developed. Past production from the pit is 26 000 tonnes of ore at 2.9 g/t, and resources remaining 292 000 tonnes of ore at 2.4 g./t yielding 22 000 ounces of gold. The mine is just north-east of the Sand King pit, about 5 kilometres north-east of the former Siberia town site.

For the Camperdown lease, the discoverer was William W. Douglas from the Richmond River region in NSW. He gave up the lease after a disagreement with his mining partners. The first definitive date found was the appropriately named Lucky and party in 1895, stating specimen gold had been found showing more gold than quartz. Leitch (surname) is also mentioned, with gold being displayed from the find in a jeweller's shop in Coolgardie. O.A. Archibald is noted as owner in 1896, and re-appears later under the Invincible and Hazel names.

Under the Invincible name, the main players were Joseph Armstrong and the brothers William and Benjamin Outred, who took up the lease in 1900. Initially the deposit was worked as an open cut, with gold said to be patchy. They were accessing a leader running alongside a large low grade ore body of quartz, ironstone and schistose formation

Archibald mentioned previously, purchased the mine from Armstrong/Outred's in 1912, however he found most of the oxide ore had been worked out, and the heavy sulphide ore was impossible to treat with the technology of the day. The lease was soon abandoned. Later in the year, James Kirkham takes over and the mine is under option to a London Company, but no more is heard.

In 1922, Archibald is back at the mine, now for the third time, and now named the Hazel, hoping someone can process the heavy sulphide ore, which so far had prevented development at depth. When the battery announced it was closing, he offered to lease it, so he could install cyanide vats. The deal fell through when his Sydney syndicate backers withdrew.

It is reported in 1924, 10 men are still dryblowing the near surface for alluvial gold.

The Mutooroo Copper Corporation NL take out a 12 month option over the lease in 1931, but do little. Frank Nazzari then takes over the lease immediately after, and a number of crushings are processed by him across 1932 to 1934 under the name Knight Commander.

Nazzari had emigrated to Australia from northern Italy in the early 20th Century, and became a firewood contractor on the goldfields, and worked for a time underground at the Golden Mile. From the 1930's, he operated several leases including the Knight Commander and Majestic at Siberia, and the Monte Carlo and Good Hope at Ora Banda. Like many miners of the time, much of the money he won was bet on horse racing. He died aged 58 in 1949, still a resident of Ora Banda.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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