Blocks 5, 6, 7 and 8, pegged in 1884 and originally known as the Great Bonanza claim, were acquired in the following year by Broken Hill South Silver Mining Company Limited, registered in Sydney. Under the direction of the first South manager, W.H. Morish, three shafts were sunk on Block 7, and some oxidised ore was located in 1888.

Block 5 was sold for $50 000 to Block 5 Silver Mining Company Limited, and when that company failed, the South mine repurchased the lease for $1400. William Hodder, who was employed on the administrative staff of the South mine for many years, commented wistfully in comprehensive historical notes prepared for the company upon his retirement: Thus the company was given a second chance to reap the benefits of the magnificent orebody which this block eventually was proved to contain. The South mine again disposed of the lease in 1900 so facilitating the entry into the field of The Zinc Corporation Limited.

A steady succession of managers, nine in 13 years, did little to instill confidence in the South mine, to the extent that Walter Sully, local hardware supplier, refused to allow the company to obtain goods on credit.

A substantial deposit of high grade ore was encountered in 1891 and a concentrating mill was erected. A lead smelting plant was also built on the South mine lease and operated for three years. In 1891 the registered office of the South mine was transferred to Melbourne. The South mine, in 1896, produced 67 000 tonnes of ore valued at $360 272, and the company paid its first dividend a year later. The capital of the company was increased to $1.6 million in 1918 and the Organisation registered as Broken Hill South Limited. The Central mine lease was acquired in 1940. Three years later, four of the original Broken Hill leases (Nos. 10, 11, 12 and 13) were also taken over following the surrender of the properties by the BHP company.

In 1932 Andrew Fairweather, manager of Broken Hill South Limited, forecast that the company had an expectation of only 15 years of productive life from its mine at Broken Hill. Warnings of impending exhaustion of ore reserves were given at shareholders' meetings by successive chairmen of the company in 1938, 1947 and 1970. The fact that the mine had continued to operate beyond the earlier predictions was attributed to the ore obtained from the adjoining BHP, Block 10 and Central mine leases, and to the purchase from North Broken Hill Limited of the Block 14, British and Junction leases in 1962.

Two million tonnes of ore were known to exist in the South mine's lower levels, which extended under the city of Broken Hill, but of such poor grade as to be uneconomical.

Despite the warnings the employees of the South mine and the people of Broken Hill were stunned when on 6 April 1972 the directors of Broken Hill South Limited issued a public statement and personal letters to the company's workforce that operations would cease three months later and that all employees would be retrenched, with the exception of a small number of personnel required for essential services. Losses sustained over preceding years, low metal prices and depleted ore reserves were given reasons for the shock announcement. Strenuous efforts by all sections of the Trade Union movement and the general community to avert the closure of the mine were unavailing. Mining operations ceased at the South mine on 7 July 1972, and other activities were phased out in succeeding weeks.

Upon the closure of the mine a prominent trade unionist voiced the wry, but generally acknowledged comment that 'we couldn't have been sacked by a nicer bloke'. This referred to the onerous duty thrust upon the locally-born, highly respected manager, S.H. Mills, in supervising winding down the company's Broken Hill operations a thankless task which he carried out with great compassion and personal assistance to employees and their families.

All South mine leases were acquired by Minerals Mining and Metallurgy Limited, a small Adelaide based company, and the mine was reopened on 16 October of the same year, with a drastically reduced labour force. The MMM company discontinued underground mining in 1976 and confined its activities to the extraction of residual oxidised ore from an open cut excavated in the Block 14 area, and the retreatment of old surface dumps.

The original South company produced 20 million tonnes of ore valued at $583 million, and distributed $129 400 000 in dividends to shareholders during its 88 years of operations at Broken Hill.

The South mine was noted for its lengthy service of officials W.E. Wainwright, general manager, 39 years; Andrew Fairweather, who succeeded Wainwright, 40 years; C.D. Cherry, accountant, 55 years; T.A. Read, metallurgist, 40 years; Arnold Black, underground manager, who introduced hydraulic stowage into the Broken Hill mining industry, 39 years; Frank Thomas, who succeeded Fairweather as general manager, 44 years; Melville Crace, chief engineer, 40 years; S.H. Mills, who was appointed manager in 1970, 47 years; and William Hodder, to whom reference has already been made, 45 years.

The closure of mining operations at Broken Hill in 1972 marked the first stage of the company's decline. Following a costly entry into the development of a huge Queensland phosphate deposit, and a heavy reliance on the production of copper with the metal's long history as an unstable market commodity the company, retitled BH South Limited, became the subject of several takeover bids. The end result was that the company lost its independence and began operating as a subsidiary of Western Mining Corporation Holdings Limited which, by 1980, had become the majority shareholder in BH South Limited.