History Mount Morgan Mine

1 history

1.1 beginning (1882 1886)
1.2 mount morgan gold mining company limited (1886–1928)
1.3 mount morgan limited (1928–1990)
1.4 recent

history

view of town of mount morgan , mine beyond queensland national hotel


the beginning (1882 1886)

walter hall , d arcy ~1885

in 1882, syndicate created open gold mine @ ironstone mountain, 39 km south of rockhampton, queensland. syndicate comprised william knox darcy (later influential in establishing anglo persian oil company), walter russell hall (later influential in establishing walter , eliza hall institute of medical research), thomas skarratt hall, , thomas, frederick , edwin morgan. ironstone mountain later renamed mount morgan after morgan members of syndicate.

mount morgan gold mining company limited (1886–1928)

mount morgan mine, 1906

in october 1886, syndicate became mount morgan gold mining company limited, james wesley hall, younger brother of walter russell , thomas skarratt hall, first general manager. mount morgan gold mining company limited operated using underground mining methods until 1927 when fire destroyed underground workings. company deliberately flooded underground workings in response fire , went liquidation.

by 1907 mine had produced $60,000,000 worth of gold, making 1 of productive in world.

mount morgan limited (1928–1990)

the mount morgan mine reestablished using open-cut mining methods in 1928, operating mount morgan limited.

conversion open-cut operation included substantial modernization of mount morgan’s mining infrastructure , mining techniques. mount morgan limited became subsidiary of peko wallsend limited in 1968 , continued operations until 1974, when mount morgan limited began reach end of ore body. mount morgan limited progressively scaled workforce , operations until reached end of ore body in 1981.

from 1982 1990, mount morgan limited began processing tailings of previous operations @ mount morgan mine site. in parallel, mount morgan mine facilities used process materials other peko wallsend operations. @ end of both such operations in 1990, queensland government began negotiating mount morgan limited regarding terms of closure.

recent

the queensland government began administration of site in 1992. perilya/aumin nl commenced further exploration in 1992 leading plans potential further reprocessing @ mount morgan mine site in future. since 2007 mine , mining leases have been owned norton gold fields. estimated 327,000 ounces of gold still exist @ site.