Report on the Commonwealth mica mine at Yinnietharra, Gascoyne River, Northwest Division, Western Australia  

Authors / CoAuthors

Owen, H.B.

Abstract

The area was visited in company with Mr. R.S. Matheson of the Geological Survey of Australia in December, 1942, when eleven pigmatite bodies bearing mica and beryl were examined. The report furnished after that visit (1943/2), gives details of access, topography, climate and vegetation which are not repeated here. In view of the urgent demand in Australia for "strategic" mica, i.e. mica of quality equivalent to Clear and Commercial-clear, it was recommended that one deposit at Yinnietharra should be opened and prospecting of others carried on simultaneously. As a result of these recommendations, the Deputy Controller of Mineral Production started mining operations on the selected dyke by open-cutting in June, 1943. Although it was stressed in the abovementioned report that poor exposure of the dyke, on which there were no workings, rendered any estimate of the probable yield of marketable mica speculative, the results actually obtained were far below expectations, and a heavy financial loss on the project was incurred. Consequently, while the question of abandoning the mine was under consideration, a detailed examination of the workings was carried out in June, 1944, again in the company of Mr. Matheson, and the results of this investigation, which was not wholly confined to geological aspects, are embodied in the present report.

Product Type

document

eCat Id

9876

Contact for the resource

Keywords

• GA PublicationRecord

( Theme )

• mineral deposits

( Theme )

• mineralogy

( Theme )

• resource assessment

( Theme )

• mining

• AU-WA

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Geology

• Published_External

Publication Date

1944-01-01T00:00:00

Creation Date

Security Constraints

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

Access - license

Use - license

Status

Purpose

Maintenance Information

unknown

Topic Category

geoscientificInformation

Series Information

Record 1944/034B

Lineage

Legacy product, lineage not available

Parent Information

Extents

[-25.0, -24.5, 116.0, 116.5]

Reference System

Spatial Resolution

Service Information

Associations

Downloads and Links

Download the Record (pdf)  

Source Information

Legacy product, source data not available.