Ann: Silver surface samples up to 920g/t returned via pXRF, page-20

@Sharetrader78

Not sure if this has been posted by someone else or not. Anyway I saw it on Mindat and thought you or others might have some interest in it.


Elizabeth Hill Mine, Karratha, City of Karratha, Western Australia,Australia

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

21° 3'40'' South , 116° 57' 7'' East

Latitude & Longitude (decimal):

-21.06115,116.95214

GeoHash:

G#:qs70jmcvy

GRN:

S15E77

Type:

Mine

Köppen climate type:

BWh : Hot deserts climate

Nearest Settlements:

	Place	Population	Distance
1	Karratha	11,728 (2011)	37.6km NNW
2	Roebourne	2,112 (2013)	37.9km NNE
3	Millars Well	2,197 (2014)	38.2km NNW
4	Nickol	4,289 (2014)	38.7km NNW
5	Dampier	1,369 (2014)	50.8km NNW

Mindat Locality ID:

212254

Long-form identifier:

mindat:1:2:212254:3

GUID (UUID V4):

0

An underground silver mine, located approximately40 km South of Karratha. The mine operated 1998-2000.

It would appear that the correct name is ElizabethHill Mine - as per the 2009 annual report of the mining company involved - EastCoast Minerals. There are, however, numerous references to the name ElizabethHills Mine, Elizabeth Hill silver and Elizabeth Hill deposit.

The mine can be seen to the west of the

Karratha-Tom Price Road

,as part of a hill cut away. It is a small underground mine that accessedhigh-grade silver ore. Mined by East Coast Minerals, and Legend Mineralsbetween 1998-2000. East Coast Minerals has subsequently acquired LegendMinerals stake in the deposit. Since 2000, only drilling has taken place northand south of the mine, but further ecomonic levels of silver were not found(2011 Annual Report).

The deposit is hosted by granite, monzogranite,intrusive **bro and pyroxenite. The last two form rafts, 2m-+50m within thegranite, dipping west. The Munni Munni Fault and basal contact of the MinniMunni Complex are the structural controls on the veining. The veins dip nearvertical, 10-15 metres wide. One source states there were four pods or oreshoots, plunging shallowly south, 20-80 metres long, 5 to 15 metres wide,showing stratiform concentrations of Ni-Cu sulphides, and variable PGE.

At the 82 metre level, the drive exposed the coreof the vein system, as a 15 metre wide body of carbonate-quartz brecciacontaining pyroxenite and granite. The veins contained 1% Ag, with 20% of thisnative silver as veins, sheets, wires, crystals, globules, and dendrites.Remaining minerals showed a complex of Ag sulphides and sulphosalts, and basemetal sulphides, amounting to 60 ore species (which annoyingly the source doesnot list), including native metals, alloys and sulphides. Gangue minerals arequartz, calcite, calcian siderite, and chlorite.

Within the system is a layered mafic-ultramaficintrusion of pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, pentlandite, and PGE's; hydrothermalCu-Zn-Pb like chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena, and an exotic suite of Agsulphides containing Ni, Co, Cu, Zn, Pb, As, Sb values, with argentopentlanditegiven as an example.

The dominant mineral assemblage is primary, butsupergene minerals like marcasite, violarite, millerite and mckinstryite doexist, with oxidised products like goethite down to a depth of 100 metres.Acanthite is noted as being widespread.

Western Australia is one of the most mineral rich regions in the world,yet mineral specimens are comparatively rare. Large mining companies viewmineral specimen collecting as little more than a nuisance. The Elizabeth HillMine was small enough to see value in providing specimens, and in 1999 anAustralian dealer was able to access the site.

The dealer described lumps of pure silver massesup to 40kg in the ore dump, and the mine reported masses to 100kg. He notedalso silver wires in the underground workings. The dealer was able to collectundamaged specimens to 11 kg. He also noted vanadanite, chalcanthite, galena,and unidentified silver halides on the ore stockpile. A few hundred silverspecimens were collected and many of these are now in circulation. There werealso a few specimens of red prismatic vanadinite crystals up to 3.5 mms long oncalcite, as well as specimens of chlorargyrite micro-crystals placed on theAustralian market at this time. Little else is believed to be in the collectormarket, although the deposit would have readily provided other species, had theopportunity existed.