Back to search results » Back to search page »

YOUNG AUSTRALIAN BATTERY AND GOLD CYANIDING WORKS

Location

GLENDART TRACK DARTMOUTH, TOWONG SHIRE

File Number

608439

Level

Registered

Statement of Significance

The Young Australian mine was founded in 1883 and despite being heralded as a promising venture it only operated for a few years. The existing remains at the mine site - a crushing battery and cyanide works - relate to a later (20th-century) phase of the site's history. The 1927 Dodge chassis and engine suggests that the surviving mining plant dates to the Dart River mining revival of the later 1930s.

The Young Australian battery and gold cyaniding works is of historical, scientific and archaeological importance to the State of Victoria.

The Young Australian battery and gold cyaniding works is historically and scientifically important as a characteristic and well preserved example of an important form of gold mining. The ore treatment plant has not been disturbed and the site is very important due to the survival of substantial evidence of a cyanide works. The cyanide process is based on the fact that sodium or potassium cyanide, in the presence of oxygen, will quickly dissolve gold that is in a fine state (tailings or concentrates). The process was introduced during the late 1890s and due to its cheapness and relative simplicity, was undertaken by both small-time miners, and on an extensive scale by large companies. The remains of cyanide works in Victoria are still quite common, but the vast majority are poorly preserved and have been the focus of on-going re-treatment operations.

The Young Australian battery and gold cyaniding works is archaeologically important for its potential to yield artefacts and evidence which will be able to provide significant information about the technological history of gold mining.

Group