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| BROKEN HILL MINES Influenced by the mining boom at Silverton, Charles Rasp, a boundary rider on Mount Gipps Station, pegged out and applied for a 40 acre mining lease on the Broken Hill in September 1883, believing the outcrop to be rich in tin. He reported his action to the manager, George McCulloch, and five other station workers and together the syndicate of seven pegged an additional six blocks covering about 3 kilometres of the outcropping orebody or line of lode. Preliminary work revealed comparatively low grade lead carbonate ore, and members of the syndicate soon began to lose faith in the hill of mullock as the miners of Silverton referred to it. A marked change came towards the end of 1884 when which rich silver ores were discovered in Rasps Shaft a depth of 30 metres and in surface outcrop a short time after. The Broken Hill Proprietary Co. LTD (BHP) was formed in August 1885 from the private company, which owned the original seven mining leases known as Blocks 10 to 16. Broken Hill developed rapidly after 1886, attracting skilled men and labour from all over the world. The first blast furnaces commenced in 1886 and belched noxious fumes over the developing town until finally transferring to Port Pirie in 1898. Each mine had extensive surface plant and mills for concentrating ore, and each developed large sprawling waste dumps. In early 1888, Broken Hill was connected by a private railway the Silverton Tramway Company to the South Australian railway system at Cockburn. In 1887 and 1888, three subsidiary companies were floated leaving BHP with three central and apparently richer leases. These new mines were block 10, Block 14 and British BHP (Blocks 15 and 16). The outcrop north and south of the original leases was inconspicuous but leases were pegged and mining gradually extended to these areas. To the north were North (1883), Junction (1884) and junction north (1890) mines, and to the south were Central (1884) and south (1884) Mines. Between 1885 and 1890, the ore extracted at Broken Hill, mostly by BHP, was very high grade and easy to mine and smelt. However, the mines struggled through the 1890s due to declining metal prices, lower ore grades and treatment difficulties known as the sulphide problem. The first significant strike at Broken Hill in 1892 was initiated by the introduction of contract mining as a cost saving measure at a time when BHP had just paid one and the million pounds in dividends. By 1900, ore to the value of 90 million pounds had been extracted but BHP, British, Block 10 and Block 14 Mines at the centre of the orebody, had mined out their richest and most accessible ore. Low metal prices and the sulphide problem continued to trouble the mines during the early 1900s, resulting in many temporary closures. However, by 1907, the price of lead had increased sharply and the sulphide problem had been largely solved. As a result, Broken Hill once more experienced boom conditions with a record 9,000 employed on the mines in 1907 compared with 5,000 in 1902. In 1905, Zinc Corporation was formed to retreat other mines zinc rich tailing dumps and, in 1911, the company amalgamated with south Blocks Mine and became a major mining company. The outbreak of World War 1 meant an immediate drop in production, as all contracts with smelters in Germany were cancelled. Unemployment increased and it was not until after the last major strike of 1919 20 that mining in Broken Hill recovered fully. There was a series of takeovers and lease transfers as the known ore reserves became depleted in the 1920s and 1930s. North Broken Hill, for example, acquired the leases of the British mine in 1923, the Junction Mine in 1929, Junction North 1931, and Block 14 in 1942. In 1936, New Broken Hill Consolidated (NBHC) was formed by Zinc Corporation to explore leases to the south of the Zinc Mine, and commenced mining in 1944. This is now the southernmost of all mines along the line of lode. |
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