Binduli, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Binduli	- not defined -
Kalgoorlie-Boulder	- not defined -
Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Binduli is approximately is 8 kilometres south-west of Kalgoorlie. The area of interest is north of the Great Eastern Highway, directly north-west of the repeater station, and east of the modern Janet Ivy open pit.

It is a north north-west to south south-east gold bearing area, which contained some mines dating from the late 1890's. There were also brief rushes to the area in 1905, 1910, and 1931. Little remains of the old mines.

Leases in later years were often un-named in the sources. In the 1890's, Victoria United, Brisbane, Binduli Main Reef, Binduli Comstock, Livingstone, Messenger's Star of the West are all named, often with little accompanying information.

The reefs in the 1890's were described as short and narrow in hard porphyry, and generally unpayable. The lodes contained porphyry and ironstone, with gold bearing ferruginous quartz veins. The veins also held calcite, and patches of galena, containing silver.

Gold mineralisation at Binduli is associated with the Janet Ivy Porphyry. The unit is a massive porphyritic plagioclase-quartz-biotite intrusive, of trondhjemite or rhyodacite composition, which has undergone variable staged metosomatic and hydrothermal alteration. It is characterised by a magnetite, hematite, albite, sericite, carbonate and pyrite assemblage.

Gold is found in quartz-pyrite veining, and associated alteration selvedges, emplaced along brittle fractures, or tension cracks by shearing along the porphyry margins. The present lease holder also claims there is an alluvial gold palaeochannel through the middle of the leases, with shallow old timer diggings to the south. Many nuggets are claimed to have been found in the area with metal detectors. It is an active lease at the time of writing.

The Livingstone and Victoria United are found furthest north, then the Brisbane, followed by Messenger's Star of the West near the north-west corner of the repeater station cleared area. There are several unnamed mines in the area.

The Hannans Lime Kiln Gold Mining Company from Brisbane was formed with 60 000 pounds capital in 1897 to take over the Brisbane mine. A shaft had been sunk to 40 feet, and at 27 feet they struck a large body of galena, calcite and quartz, containing gold.

The Victoria United lease was 24 acres, with a shaft and open cut, revealing decomposed porphyry and ironstone, with auriferous quartz veins, pyrite, and small patches of galena.

The Livingstone mine is mentioned once with a trial crushing in 1898 for 8 tonnes yielding 9.5 ounces of gold. Binduli Comstock is noted in 1899, with a shaft to 50 feet, and several crushings of ferruginous quartz, impregnated with galena, and small shotty gold. Lee Johns is named in 1920 on the Belle lease, having formed a syndicate at the Kalgoorlie Foundry.

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References