Bellevue Gold Mine, Leinster, Leonora Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Bellevue Gold Mine	Mine
Leinster	- not defined -
Leonora Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

A gold property located 350 km North of Kalgoorlie. Started 1897, closed 1912. Was owned by Queen Margaret Gold Mines NL & Spargos Exploration NL, joint venture.

This gold mine has a long history of activity from 1896 to 1997. The deposit was discovered in 1895 by Toombs, O'Reilly, Parker and Dightman, a party of prospectors from Cue. After obtaining any alluvial and some near surface gold, they sold the property to Forrest, Emanuel, and co. for 4000 pounds. A company was floated called the Bellevue Proprietary Ltd in 1896.

The enterprise was not entirely successful, with the company reconstructed in 1899, 1902, 1907, before being finally wound up as Bellevue Ltd in 1912. During this period the battery was expanded to 40 heads, although it was not often all were in operation together.

The reef was a north-south trending body of laminated quartz and schist with irregular values. Below the oxidised level, pyrite carries virtually all the gold. Copper represents one third to one half of the contents of the mine, and presented significant problems with treatment in the early days, being largely the reason the original company ended. Much gold was originally left in the sands. Workings reached 400 feet down, where the mineralisation was cut by the Highway Fault.

During the Bellevue Proprietary Ltd days to 1907 the mine produced 211 751 tonnes of ore for 108 107 ounces of gold. When Bellevue Ltd took over 1907 to 1911, it produced 36380 tonnes of ore for 21 362 ounces.
10 225 ounces of silver was also produced over the entire period.

After the company abandoned the mine, the property was taken up by Claude de Bernales, and entered a period of idleness. This was not unusual for Bernales' mines, as he was often more interested in speculation than mining.

In 1920, the lease was applied for by S. Shiel of Lawlers. The plant at the mine was sold and removed in 1923.

Little then happens until the gold boom of the 1930's. New technology enabling the treatment of the sands and sulphide ore, rich in gold and copper, led to the mine being re-opened. In 1933, C. McKeown takes an option over the mine, comprising 18 leases. Bellevue Amalgamated NL was formed in Sydney in 1935 with 200 000 capital.

The mine is next reported active in 1952, owned by A. Peter, F. Dawson, and A. Greengrass. A short operation across this year proved a bonanza for the prospectors, with ore taken from the old south drive at the 100 foot level. One crushing of 100 tonnes at the Ora Banda state battery produced 484 ounces, with a further 400 ounces obtained over the rest of the year.

Underground mining occurred at the site between 1988 to 1997. Beach Petroleum NL sold half its interest in 1995 to the unlisted Western Gold Mines NL for A$3.75 million. It may not have been the wisest investment with the mine closing two years later.

The mine has since been through several owners with little more than exploration. This includes Barrick Gold after the mine closed, Siberia Mining Corporation Ltd 2004, Hodges Resources Ltd 2007, Monarch Gold 2008, and probably others since.

The mine is found in the Yakabindie Domain of the Agnew-Wiluna Greenstone Belt, at the south end of the Mt Goode Basalt. Gold is hosted in plagioclase-phyric tholeiite metabasalts. Gold is located in north to north-west trending, westerly dipping, shear zones, and associated with quartz veins and breccias. The gold is associated with massive to disseminated pyrrhotite, with minor pyrite and chalcopyrite. Free gold is rare.

At 10:15, on the 06 December 1988, a Mitsubishi Mu-2B-60 Marquise aircraft crashed at Sturt Meadows Station, 55 kilometres west north-west of Leonora, while taking mine workers from the Bellevue Gold Mine to Kalgoorlie. All 10 on board were killed. Investigations determined ice formed on the aircraft causing it to stall, and go into a spin. It was the worst aircraft accident for fatalities in Western Australia for the previous 20 years.

The mine is 55 kilometres north of Leinster, on the northern shores of the Lake Miranda salt-pan, and borders the east side of the Goldfields Highway. The site is busy, with four open pits, relicts from the 1890's mining period, mullock heaps, remnant mining equipment, and a strange collection of small square pits to the east, which could be an intensive exploration exercise. The Vanguard, Orleans, Mt Goode and Cosmos mines are immediately to the north.

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