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THE KINGSGATE MINES 1988 PART 1  

HISTORY OF THE KINGSGATE MINES

Sachs'Mine. Specimens Torn From One Mass of Molybdenite.

When I moved to Glen Innes in January 1988, I began work on the attached report on the Kingsgate mines. This was the place where mining had revealed a great variety of minerals, and it was the sight of these in the Mining Museum and the Australian Museum in Sydney which stimulated me to study Geology and Mineralogy in particular.

In those days there was free access to the mines area, about 30 km east of Glen Innes which made it easy to collect specimens, unlike today. I hope this little volume will both inform and encourage you.

John Paix Glen Innes 1988 ©

Illustrations and many quotations are from Reports, Bulletins etc of the Geological Survey of NSW.

THE KINGSGATE MINES Part 1

 HISTORY OF THE KINGSGATE MINES            

Following the first exploration of the Glen Innes area in 1835 by Duval and Chandler (the "Beardies"), squatters soon moved in and took possession of the more fertile and accessible parts. Kingsgate lies on the eastern side of this more favourable country and was settled by 1848. In those early years, little attention was given to the possibility of valuable minerals being found in the district. Things were soon to change.

The gold rushes which began in 1851 brought enormous numbers of immigrants into the country and inevitably prospectors were drawn to the streams and gullies of New England. Gold was discovered at Nundle in 1852 and east of Tenterfield in 1859. Along with the gold, the miners sometimes found dense black sand, more of a nuisance than anything else. First recognised as the valuable mineral cassiterite (tin oxide) at Dundee in 1853, it was not until 1872 that its potential was realised. In that year the great rushes to Tingha, Elsmore and Emmaville began.

In less than a year, prospectors were scouring New England from Armidale to the Queensland border and beyond, seeking this new "black gold". They found it in a host of places - Tingha, Newstead, Elsmore, Vegetable Creek, Torrington, Bald Nob, Wilson's Downfall, Stanthorpe and many more. As with gold, the rock outcrops from which the alluvial mineral was derived were eagerly sought too, for these offered the possibility of more permanent mines and greater wealth.

So it was that in 1872 prospectors acting on behalf of an Adelaide company came to Kingsgate, where 80 acres of land were secured for the purpose of mining tin. Small quantities of cassiterite were indeed found in the quartz outcrops, but, like the gold miners before them, the tin miners failed to notice or appreciate the other valuable minerals found there. The site was soon abandoned.

In 1877, a stockman on Yarrow Creek Station named J. Feeney picked up a large piece of a metallic mineral in the vicinity of the old tin workings. It was sent to Sydney for identification where it was shown to be native bismuth. About the same time, Hughie Quinn, a prospector, noticed a yellow encrustation on a quartz outcrop on Leatherjacket Hill. (The site later became known as the No. 5 pipe, the famous "One and Nine".) Believing it to be sulfur, he showed it to Mr. W.H. Yates who was at that time mining tin on the Severn River near Bald Nob. Yates determined the mineral to be bismuth ochre (bismite or bismuth oxide, Bi₂O₃). The specimen was then shown to Mr. Ferguson, a Member of Parliament at that time, who recommended that the land on which the outcrops occurred be secured.

In 1879, Quinn and Ferguson leased 60 acres of the original tin leases for the purpose of mining bismuth. This prompted Feeney to secure a block lower down the gully, in company with John Rush and Mr. Say. Acting on advice from Quinn, Yates visited the area in 1880 and washed rich native bismuth from the rubble of a quartz pipe at a locality near the Yarrow River known locally as the Cattle Camp which he proceeded to lease for mining also. (This was evidently the No. 24 pipe, known as "the Forty" mine.) Meanwhile, Feeney sold his lease to Mr. Lewis, a storekeeper in Glen Innes, who, observing the isolated nature of the leases, suggested that all should be amalgamated. The Kingsgate Bismuth Company was thus formed and the holders then proceeded to obtain leases on the land between their blocks and on adjoining land where quartz outcrops were to be found.

Active prospecting for further quartz outcrops was also carried out by another local group, calling themselves the "Glen Innes Company". They located outcrops overlooked by the Kingsgate Bismuth Company and secured a lease of 25 acres. It was on this land that the famous "Old 45" pipe was later discovered.

The Kingsgate Company worked its mines until 1883, when they sold out to Messrs D. Marks and E. Vickery. Mr. Yates continued on as manager until 1889 when mining ceased, mainly due to the primitive recovery methods in use then. At this time, only bismuth minerals were recovered, the associated molybdenite being discarded. It was during this period that access roads and a water race from the Yarrow River were constructed. The Glen Innes Company followed a similar pattern, closing down operations in 1890 due to poor returns. Over the next few years, Yates continued to mine some bismuth and a number of other small mineral recoveries were made by prospectors.

In 1901, Mr. Valentine Sachs secured the land formerly leased by the Glen Innes Company and mined the main pipe on his block (No. 45) successfully until 1912. By 1907, molybdenite was beginning to contribute significantly to the profitability of the mines.

Marks and Vickery's mines continued to produce ore intermittently until 1905 when the property was sold to Yates. He progressively improved the milling and concentration of the ore. In 1912 Yates erected the Number 40 mill and the Upper mill to process the ore. At this stage 35 men were employed. In 1918 the mines were sold to Kingsgate Molybdenite NL which planned a great expansion of production. It was intended to install a tramway haulage system and to centralise the air compressing plant to supply the various mines with the compressed air necessary to operate mining equipment.

Mr. Sachs sold his lease to the Glen Innes Molybdenite and Bismuth Company in 1912, which had little success in continuing operations. Sachs, meanwhile, took up further mining leases between those of the two companies under the name of the "Sachs of Kingsgate Molybdenite and Bismuth Syndicate". Further leases were secured by him to the south of the existing mines but in 1917 Sachs sold his leases to Thomas Lancaster who continued with limited mining and prospecting.

The outbreak of World War 1 greatly increased the demand for molybdenite, as molybdenum had become a vital metal in the manufacture of hardened steel for guns, tanks etc. Agreements with the British government to purchase molybdenite ran out in 1920 and the price of the mineral dropped so dramatically that there was virtually no market at all for several years. Only ore rich in bismuth had any value and little of this remained in the pipes being mined.

By the commencement of World War 11 the demand for molybdenite was being adequately met by the great mines at Climax, Colorado. The Kingsgate mines met a new need, however, as they became a source of flawless quartz crystals for use in radio equipment. Messrs M Priest, AA Goodwin and H Goodwin were involved in mining at this time but eventually the workings were taken over by AWA and Radio Corporation.

Mr H Quodling managed the quartz mining for AWA and around 10 men were employed extracting crystals from the old dumps with some coming from new work in the old shafts. The market for quartz declined rapidly from 1945 and activity ceased once more.

In 1948, Mr. E. Moskovits, acting for Kingsgate Mining Industries Pty Ltd, began producing molybdenite and wolfram concentrates, mostly by retreating old dump material. This period of production closed in 1952.

In 1966 and again in 1969 the field was investigated for its potential for the development of a low grade open cut mine. After extensive field work and testing by drilling, which brought discouraging results, the area was left to the fossickers once more.