Laverton (Western Australia)

Laverton is a town on the gold deposits of Western Australia the Great Victoria Desert. Laverton is located at the western end of this desert. The town is located 957 km north-east of Perth, 124 kilometers northeast of Leonora. In Laverton begin the Great Central Road and the Anne Beadell Highway, which leads to Coober Pedy in South Australia.

Gold deposits

The area around Laverton is too arid for agricultural cultivation, so there are only sheep and cattle. Laverton lives from gold mining, because there is an occurrence with the mainly two large mines, the Grann -Smith Gold Mine of the Canadian company Barrick Gold, the largest gold mining company in the world, and the Sunrise Dam gold mine of South Africa company AngloGold Ashanti. Both mines are operated in open pit and lie near Leonora.

The area was first entered by Europeans John Forrest and Ludwig Leichhardt from Germany in the mid- 18th century, when they led expeditions westwards. Leichhardt's expedition and he did not return and Forrest followed in his footsteps, but he found the large gold deposit of Leichhardt. The large gold deposits at Laverton were discovered in 1896 and numerous gold seekers arrived in this area, among them the successful prospector Charles W. Laver was, after which the town was named. The original location in 1899 moved to its present location.

In the late 1960s, the price of gold fell and it went downhill economically in the region.

As the prices of commodities at the end of the 20th century, old mines were opened and exploited as the Windarra mine and other mines again.

Mineral resources

1969, a huge nickel deposit was discovered that has been mined for 20 years as Windarra Nickel Project and then closed. Today, a reopening of the mine is planned. About 30 kilometers from Laverton is located at Mount Weld one of the largest previously known occurrences of rare earths outside China.