Outback Family History

This website is dedicated to the memory of my two dear friends Sandy Duncan and Shyama Peebles who both passed away in 2012.

Lancefield and Beria > Lancefield Gold Mine

Lancefield Gold Mine
Western Australia

Group of mines at the Lancefield Gold Mine c 1904 - Photo SLWA

Located 8 kms northwest of Laverton, the Lancefield gold centre was discovered by John LEMON in July 1897 who named it Lancefield after his hometown in Victoria.

John LEMON and his three partners found gold "floaters" on flat country about 5 miles from where the town was eventually established. There were no outcrops and no other indicators, but they dug some well-placed costeans (long narrow trenches) which proved a schist and a quartz lode up to 15 feet wide.

William Thomas HORTON of the Mount Malcolm Proprietary Mine at Murrin Murrin was one of the earliest to realise the possibilities of the Laverton area and was very interested in LEMON's new find.

In 1898 HORTON formed a syndicate and erected a battery close to the reef. In January 1899 they started treating ore and by October 1900 after only 22 months, they had treated 16,000 tons of ore for 7,200 ounces of gold. This gave the syndicate a profit, as the whole capital put up initially was less than $1000.

With HORTON were STRAUSS and FREEMAN and they had demonstrated that this 12 dwt. mine was likely to be a very profitable undertaking. 54,909 ounces of gold was produced by 1905, making Lancefield one of the most important mines in the district.

Share Certificate for Harris Phillpots- Lancefild Gold Mine - Photo Mindat

The London based company - the Lancefield Gold Mining Company took over in July 1904 with Bewick Moreing & Co as general managers and Herbert HOOVER, later President of the USA, as one of the Directors. In the first few months the new owners produced 6,200 ounces of gold, they then bought the new 40 head battery at Euro and reorganised the whole milling and production plant. No sooner had they done this than the ore they were treating changed to an ore containing sulphides, copper and arsenic.

J J Fox 1939 - Image TROVE

Bewick Moreing had to stop operations and change everything again to a dry crushing and roasting plant. To win gold from sulphide rock the ore must be roasted in a huge furnace to "cook off’ the sulphur before the gold is released. Bewick Moreing came in for a lot of criticism in the region at the time, as the new process, with huge main boilers, required 2000 tons of wood a month just to treat 7000 tons of ore and would be a big drain on an already very sparsely timbered region. By 1914 the mine was operated, unsuccessfully, by the Boulder Firewood Company, it was then taken over by George RIDGEWAY who for a time showed a profit. The Lancefield (New) Company was run by John Joseph FOX and George RIDGEWAY from 1933- 1940.

Up to the 1950's Lancefield produced a total of 552,000 ounces of gold and 52,000 ounces of silver.

Miners at the Lancefield GM c 1903 - Photo SLWA