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AIG South Australia Branch meeting for September 2014, talk presented by Tom Mayer.
Please RSVP today if you plan to attend to Graham Teale
Meet in the the restaurant bar for complimentary drinks at 6:30 pm prior to the talk at 7:00 pm. Dinner will follow the talk for those wishing to stay.
Geoscience students are welcome to attend the meeting.
Tom’s talk will cover the disccovery of gold at The Granites and the exploration history since discovery through to the modern era. The reasons why it took 86 years between discovery and the advent of the Northern Territory’s preeminent gold mine will be examined. There may well be lessons for modern explorers.
The discovery of gold at The Granites by Alan Davidson in 1900 did not spark immediate development due to the remoteness of the area and the harshness of the environment. Subsequent prospecting led to the discovery of a small patch of colluvial gold at what is now known as Chapman’s Hill. This sparked a gold rush in the Great Depression year of 1932 with up to 300 men trying their luck, living in appalling, primitive conditions. C.T. Madigan, from the University of Adelaide, was contracted by a newspaper to visit and report on the goldfield. His report condemned the field and helped to burst the investment bubble associated with it. Charles “Pop” Chapman, a well sinker from Queensland, did not agree with Madigan. He established a water bore and commenced hard rock mining at the Burdekin Duck on Chapman’s Hill. He eventually gained control of the entire goldfield and continued underground mining at Bullakitchie and Shoe, a few kilometres west of Chapman’s Hill. Chapman continued mining at The Granites until he retired in 1954. Exact production is not known but he probably produced about 1000 ounces of gold per year.
Several companies explored at The Granites during and after the Chapman era. Eventually, North Flinders Mines Ltd (NFM) secured the ground in 1974 but were not able to access it immediately due to a moratorium on new exploration in the NT which lasted for the duration of the Woodward Aboriginal Land Rights Royal Commission, the subsequent delays during the establishment of the Central Land Council (CLC), and further delays for the duration of negotiations with the CLC, the NT and Federal Governments. The first Land Rights Agreement was eventually signed in August 1983 and NFM commenced a diamond drilling program at The Granites as soon as the agreement had been signed. Successful exploration in 1983-84 led to the commencement of open cut and underground operations at Bullakitche in 1985 together with the construction of FIFO camp and a mill capable of throughput of about 400,000 tonnes per annum. NFM’s first gold pour occurred on June 30 1986 and the first full year of operation produced over 70,000 ounces of gold bullion. Further open cut mining occurred at Shoe, Quorn and Bunkers Hill and underground mining was also undertaken at Shoe. Gold discoveries by NFM, some 30km west of The Granites, at Dead Bullock Soak and Callie resulted in more mines but these are not covered by this talk.
Tom has over 35 years’ experience working as an exploration geologist, mainly in gold and base metals and, more recently, in industrial minerals, principally kaolin. He first worked as an exploration geologist for CRA Exploration Pty Ltd, undertaking base metal and gold exploration in SA and diamond and uranium exploration in WA. He then worked on gold exploration for Homestake in WA and New Zealand. Tom worked for NFM for 12 years, commencing with the first diamond drill-hole drilled by NFM at The Granites in 1983 and overseeing all diamond drilling at The Granites. After leaving NFM in 1995 he continued working in the Tanami Desert, principally for Tanami Gold and mainly on their tenements in the Western Australian part of the Tanami. More recently, he worked for Minotaur Exploration Ltd at Prominent Hill and continued IOCG gold exploration for them after the divestment of the Prominent Hill mine. He also undertook exploration of the Poochera kaolin deposits for Minotaur from 2008 to 2013. He now works as an independent Consulting Geolog
