mantles strategic lv, page-5

Just a bit more FYI while we wait for quarterly and further news on our projects.

http://www.mantlemining.com/files/announcements/935881.pdf

"Coal deposits were historically mined around Thorpdale to the north, Berry’s Creek to the south-west and at Won Wron to the south-east.
Mantle considers the potential for discovery of additional (brown and black) coal deposits and extensions of these historic areas to be very high."


Won Wron(Casey?) seems to have potential -

http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/45332/COAL-Mine-Sites-238-288-Online_1265688900030.pdf

"10.2 Won Wron (Yarram) Open Cut
Map Reference: 8221 2S Carrajung Zone 55
7221 Traralgon Zone 55
Mine site 4760, 57410 Zone 55 approx.
Township 4752, 57415 approx.
Municipality: Shire of Alberton, Parish of Won Wron
Land Use/Status:
Site History
The location Won Wron is on the Hyland Highway about
14 kilometres north of Yarram in Eastern Gippsland. Won
Wron was previously a rail station about 234 kilometres from
Melbourne on the South Gippsland Railway.
Brown coal was fi rst recorded in the Won Wron area by
RAF Murray in 1876, ‘in the Middle Creek, between Mac’s
and Greig’s creeks, north from Yarram’.545 The deposits in this
area were again referred to in Mines Department reports by
Stirling in 1892 and 1899, and by Kitson in 1902. An idealised
depiction of the Won Wron deposits was made by Stirling
in 1899 (p. 78B) as shown below as Drawing 10.2/3. A brief
description of the Won Wron brown coal deposit is given by
Stirling (1899).546
Shallow shafts were sunk by 1892, at least one of which
passed 30 feet into coal without reaching the bottom of the
seam. Sixteen bores were put down between 1922 and 1929
on C.A.77, Won Wron. These were depicted by Thomas
and Baragwanath,547 showing coal up to 140 feet thick,
commencing at eight feet below surface. A further 20 bores
were put down in 1954. Bores on the north side of Middle
Creek showed little brown coal. On the south of the creek to
the western boundary of C.A.77, the main seam of coal on
the average was 150 feet thick under 85 feet of overburden.
However the overburden increased outside the western
boundary and the coal was split into broken seams towards
the southern boundary of Lot 77.548
The Mines Department Annual Report for 1955 (on p.15)
reported that two workable seams of coal had been located
Coal Mining Heritage Study – Mine Sites Identifi cation 271
at Won Wron. Drawing 10.2/1 shows cross sections of the
coal deposit and the open cut as depicted by JL Knight at
1957/58.549
An open cut was commenced circa 1957 by the Won Wron
Brown Coal Pty Ltd. There was a temporary lapse in activity
but overburden removal recommenced in 1958.551 A record of
the quantity of coal extracted from the open cut or the duration
of coal excavation has not been found in this study.
Analysis of the main seam showed a calorifi c value varying
from 5,560 to 6,460 BTU’s per lb., marginally better than from
Yallourn North, Wensley Bray and Thorpdale. The upper seam
of thickness from nine feet to 40 feet had a value from 5,265
to 5,650 BTU’s per lb. Ash content varied from 0.8 per cent
to 4 per cent.551
The Mines Department Annual Report for 1979 (on p. 46)
states that brown coal samples from the Parish of Won Wron
were analysed and continuing.
At 1984, the coal deposit at Won Wron was considered to
be a small discrete deposit with recoverable coal of the order
of two million tonnes. It was geologically associated with a
much larger unworked deposit of up to 100 million tonnes
at Boodyarn.552 This latter coalfi eld was also associated
with again-larger unworked but readily mineable deposits at
Stradbroke and Alberton, the coal resources of which came
under technical appraisal from the 1950s.
No further details have been ascertained with respect to the
Won Wron Open Cut in this study. (In some early documentation,
this deposit and mine is referred to as the Yarram coal deposit.)
Drawing 10.2/1 Won Wron (Yarram) Open Cut: Plan and sections (extracted from JL Knight, Mining and Geological
Journal, Vol. 6 No. 2, 1957, p. 39).
272 Coal Mining Heritage Study
Drawing 10.2/2 Won Wron (Yarram) Open Cut: Coal and overburden quantities
in situ (from Knight, Mining and Geological Journal, 1957, p. 41).
Drawing 10.2/3 Won Wron: Sketch section of brown coal seam (from Stirling, (1899), Plate No. 9).
Coal Mining Heritage Study – Mine Sites Identifi cation 273
Assessment of Heritage Signifi cance
Historical Signifi cance
The brown coal deposit north of Yarram as reported by the
Mines Department in 1876 was the fi rst coal discovery so far
east in Gippsland. The discovery confi rmed propositions that
the extensive brown coal fi elds in the Latrobe Valley probably
extended at least as far east as Sale and southwards to the
coast south and east of Yarram. The existence of the Won
Wron deposit as a coal fi eld, found as an outcrop without
basalt or limestone cover, led to extensive drilling in South
East Gippsland through to the present time to determine the
locations and extent of ‘economically winnable coal’.
From the 1920s, the East Gippsland brown coal deposits were
progressively confi rmed and assessed as being widespread,
albeit in much of the area being overlain with thicker overburden
and limestone. The Won Wron localised deposit without
limestone cover was an indication that similar readily minable
deposits would possibly be found by more extensive drilling.
Scientifi c Signifi cance
No specifi c scientifi c outcome arose from the discovery and
subsequent geological appraisal of this small discrete brown
coal deposit. However resultant further coal discoveries and
assessments in South East Gippsland stimulated interest by
private industry in coal conversion opportunities from the 1920s.
Economic Signifi cance
The small coal output from the discrete coal deposit at Won
Wron was of low economic impact in the region or local
community. However the possibility exists that, as at Bacchus
Marsh and at Anglesea, more economic deposits other than
that found ‘by chance in outcrop’ at Won Wron could be
discovered from continuing detailed investigations of the
widespread deposits in East Gippsland.
Social Signifi cance
The coal discoveries which followed the Won Wron fi nd and
the geological appraisal of the wide extent of the regional
brown coal deposits kept in the public view the potential for
future large scale development of the resource. The scope
for industries based on brown coal as feedstock, such as
associated with the gas and oil industries, was appreciated
as a future possibility." ends...

cheers
B Rubes