History

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 rich silver ores were discovered in Rasps Shaft at 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 transferred 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 signficant 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 £1 million 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 9000 employed on the mines in 1907 compared with 5000 in 1902.

In 1905, Zinc Corporation was formed to retreat other mines' zinc-rich tailings 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 in 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 the mines along the line of lode. Between 1920 and 1940, the older companies mining the central shallow area ceased operations, leaving only North, South, Zinc and NBHC Mines at the ends of the lode. The South Mine closed in 1972 and its leases were acquired by Minerals, Mining and Metallurgy (MMM). MMM removed low-grade remnant ore from the central portion of the orebody by open-cut method between 1976 and 1991. NBHC and Zinc Mines (both owned by Australian Mining and Smelting Ltd, a subsidiary of CRA) consolidated to form ZC Mines in 1986 which subsequently merged with North Broken Hill Ltd to form Pasminco Ltd in 1988.


BHP Mine

The seven mining leases pegged by the syndicate of seven in 1883 were amalgamated in 1885 to form BHP and, by 1888, the company retained only Blocks 11, 12 and 13 along the crest of the outcropping lode. Initially, a series of shafts were sunk into the rich ore and substantial profits were earned. During its first three years, BHP produced 7 million ounces of silver, about one-third of world production.

The first smelting furnaces were installed by BHP in 1886 (the north smelters) and a second complex (the south smelters) was added in 1888. Eventually 15 furnaces with a total capacity of 4 500 tons of ore per week were built. The BHP Mine dominated Broken Hill during its early years and paid more than £1 million in dividends by the early 1890s. It was known locally as the Proprietary, the Prop or just the Big Mine.

Open cutting of the hill commenced in 1891 and, in 1894, a concentration mill with a capacity of 1500 tons per week was erected. Another mill, with a capacity of 10000 tons per week, was erected in 1897 using part of the south smelter slag dump. The stone foundations of the second mill survive today near Delprat Shaft.

The BHP Mine was at its peak between 1900 and 1908, when up to 13000 tons of ore were extracted per week. Employing nearly 3500 men or more than one third of the entire mine workforce, the Big Mine clearly ruled the line of lode.

However, the mine's richest ore was exhausted by 1908 and the company began to look elsewhere for profit. The wealth won at Broken Hill by BHP established Australia's iron and steel industry. The BHP Mine finally closed in 1939, having made £30 million profit from 12.3 million tons of ore worth £54 million. Today, BHP is known as the Big Australian. The mine was reworked by Broken Hill South Ltd between 1951 and 1961.


Block 10 Mine

Block 10 was one of the original BHP leases, which was floated as a separate company in 1888 as the BHP Block 10 Co. Ltd. A concentration mill was erected at the mine in the 1890s to treat sulphide ore. Underground subsidence seriously affected the mill and, as a result, a new mill was erected on the adjacent hill in 1903.

An aerial ropeway, the first at Broken Hill, was completed in 1904 and transported broken ore 600 metres from the mine to a large storage bin above the concentration mill, which could treat 3500 tons of ore per week.

Production totaled 2.5 million tons of ore worth £5 million and dividends of 1.5 million pounds were paid up to 1923 when the mine and mill closed and were purchased by BHP. The mine was reworked by Broken Hill South Ltd between 1946 and 1960, and much of the mine site is now covered by overburden dumps from modern open-cut operations.


Block 14 Mine

Block 14 was also one of the original BHP leases and was floated as a separate company in 1887. The mine, like others on the centre of the lode, was noted for its rich oxidized ore. A smelting works was erected on the site in 1889 but closed in 1894 when smelting works commenced at Port Adelaide.

The mine closed in the early 1900s due to low metal prices and the sulphide problem. It resumed production in 1906, selling concentrates to the newly formed Zinc Corporation, but closed in 1928 after producing 1.6 million tons of ore valued at £4.7 million. The mine was reworked by North Broken Hill Ltd from 1948 to 1952.

British BHP Mine

The British BHP Co. Ltd was formed in 1887 to control Blocks 15 and 16 of the original BHP leases. A smelter was built in 1891 to treat oxidized ore which was previously concentrated in a large mill. The mill closed in 1901 due to the sulphide problem. By 1910, the company had removed most of the accessible ore and, in 1923, sold the leases to North Broken Hill Ltd after producing 2.8 million tons of ore. The latter company reworked the mine until 1958 from Thompson and Blackwood Shafts. The area was reworked by open cutting in the 1980s.