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The Frederick the Great Reef was discovered in 1864 following a short alluvial rush the year before. Reported production at the mines is 186,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 10.4 g/t.
The Frederick The Great Company began work in 1864 from an open cut located nearly 300 m north of the present main shaft. Early mining was concentrated in relatively shallow ground. By 1870 57,000 tons of ore yielded over 19,000 oz Au. The company operated successfully for many years from 1864 to the mid 1870s when production declined. The mine was revived in the 1880s when it was operated by up to 20 tribute parties through to the early 1890s when it was known as the Frederick The Great Tribute Co. In the early 1880s the company cleaned out the old 460 and 580 ft levels while tributers worked in the upper levels. However much of the stoping during the 1880s was done in the upper levels particularly the 300' and 327' levels. Many of the newspaper reports are difficult to follow during this period as is common when tributers were the main source of mine development. The tribute system meant that development in general was very limited because each tribute party concentrated on their own short-term needs.
Late in 1893 English capital was raised and the shaft was sunk to the 780' level. This new development was disappointing and by 1897 the English shareholders had rearranged the company. In 1906 the Frederick The Great Co. pumped out the main shaft in order to access the lower levels. They also sunk their 'north shaft' (125 m north of main shaft) to 84 m and drove a 64 m (210') level south.
In the 1/2 yearly report of 21/7/1908 the company refers to Charlton's east crosscut 121 m south of the shaft at the 580' level. "At present reef above Charlton's E xcut (580' L) is being opened up. There is a large body of stone here, carrying little gold of promising appearance, and likely to improve". The exact location of this reef is unknown however the reference to 'eastern crosscut' suggests it may be a reef located east of Frederick The Great Reef - it is possible this is the 'Bruhns' or New Structure located in FTG003 and other holes.
The Frederick the Great company's closed in the last half of 1912. The closure of the mine caused the Bruhns  Consolidated Company to also close as they were "unable to cope with the water"
The historic workings are located within a steeply west dipping fault-reef, the Frederick the Great Fault zone, which runs parallel to a NNW trending very tightly folded anticline containing multiple parallel reefs such as the Bruhns (previously called New Reef) and Frederick the Great Reefs.
Similar to the Castlemaine project, where these faults cross-cut the east limb of an anticline, wide dilation zones containing quartz and gold are produced.
This is a regionally significant fault zone with strike continuity of over 3 kilometres.
Although similar in geological character to other Central Victorian Quartz-Reef styles, the Frederick the Great mineralisation has it's own unique character as defined by the tighter chevron folding, strong and persistent east-west structural fabric. Drill data suggests that some quartz-reefs are better developed away from the anticline axis. Even though the short scale quartz-reef shoot controls are relatively uncertain, historical research of mining records shows that tribute miners who worked the deposit across most it's life were highly successful in identifying and mining such high grade shoots.
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