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The Fund has been established not as a grants scheme but as a partnership programme. The aim is to develop joint venture projects and community action that will help the community to respond with imagination and flexibility to the challenges facing Western Australia and take advantage of emerging opportunities.

To date, the Fund has supported a range of projects, including Aboriginal child health research, on-the-ground environment programmes and a number of youth, leadership and educational initiatives. But one project more visible to the public is in the Goldfields' outback city of Kalgoorlie, the fourth wealthiest mining precinct in the world - where Paddy Hannan hit it rich in 1893.

In 1995 a need was recognized by Australian mining groups for a visible icon to mark the importance of prospecting and mining in Australia's past, present, and particularly its future. From that concept it developed into a national project, culminating in the Australian Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame, on the north east outskirts of Kalgoorlie.

Located on a seven hectare site, The Mining Hall Of Fame (as it is more commonly known) opened in October 2001. Covering all aspects of Australia's mining nationally, including petroleum and gas, and associated environmental issues, it incorporates the old Hannan's North mine, already a tourist gold mine, just north of the famous "Golden Mile".

Hannan's North mine originally opened in 1893 and had closed in 1952 when gold ore there was exhausted. It was reopened, as a tourist mine, in 1990. Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, who own the Super Pit open cut gold mine nearby, donated the land at Hannan's North so that a new tourist mine could be opened.



The Fund has been established not as a grants scheme but as a partnership programme. The aim is to develop joint venture projects and community action that will help the community to respond with imagination and flexibility to the challenges facing Western Australia and take advantage of emerging opportunities. To date, the Fund has supported a range of projects, including Aboriginal child health research, on-the-ground environment programmes and a number of youth, leadership and educational initiatives. But one project more visible to the public is in the Goldfields' outback city of Kalgoorlie, the fourth wealthiest mining precinct in the world - where Paddy Hannan hit it rich in 1893. In 1995 a need was recognized by Australian mining groups for a visible icon to mark the importance of prospecting and mining in Australia's past, present, and particularly its future. From that concept it developed into a national project, culminating in the Australian Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame, on the north east outskirts of Kalgoorlie. Located on a seven hectare site, The Mining Hall Of Fame (as it is more commonly known) opened in October 2001. Covering all aspects of Australia's mining nationally, including petroleum and gas, and associated environmental issues, it incorporates the old Hannan's North mine, already a tourist gold mine, just north of the famous "Golden Mile". Hannan's North mine originally opened in 1893 and had closed in 1952 when gold ore there was exhausted. It was reopened, as a tourist mine, in 1990. Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, who own the Super Pit open cut gold mine nearby, donated the land at Hannan's North so that a new tourist mine could be opened.
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Review is published by Rio Tinto, 6 St James' Square, London SW1Y 4LD, England Telephone +44 (0)20 7930 2399 Editor: Cherry DeGeer