While Gold was not found in Wandong itself one did not have to go far to find it. The hills to the north east around Clonbinane were found to be reasonable gold areas and mining was carried on there for some years. In fact, a new push is on now to re explore some of these areas with projects being considered for large tracts of land in the area where once the old miners worked.

Two large cyanide tanks were built at the Wandong works; the gold bearing dirt being bought into town from the Clonbinaine mines for processing. The plant was located on the northwestern side of the railway line and still today contains contaminated soil from the works.

The Golden Dyke mine at Clonbinane was the largest at more than three quarters of a mile deep large amounts of dirt was extracted. Horse and dray were used to transport the material to Wandong where it was tipped into the large vats containing the cyanide and the gold extracted.

After the closure of the works at Wandong, Mr Spence was granted permission to open cyanide works at the mine site and reportedly when asked if he recovered much gold from the process always answered, ” Not much”, however he kept the operation going for some time and left the locals wondering how much was, “Not much”.