Broken Hill and mining – a very brief snapshot

Mining Industry
History

Cover of Broken Hill
A Guide To The Silver City

It is well know that Broken Hill’s major claim to fame was with the discovery of what turned out to be one of the (if not the) world’s richest seam of silver, lead and zinc by a boundary rider named Charles Rasp in 1883.  Much has been written on the subject.

Broken Hill’s population has been heavily influenced by the booms in mining and its population reached 35,000¹ in 1915.  Today the population is below 20,000.

The most notable mining company is of course Broken Hill Proprietary Co Ltd (BHP) which was formed in August 1885² to raise the capital required to mine the boomerang shaped ore body known as the line of lode.  The jutting shape of the ore filled outcrop inspired the name “broken hill”.  With much of the ore body now mined, the hill was replaced with a “seven kilometre length of tailings”³ (or left over material from the mining process) which is a similar height to the original line of lode pre-mining days.

Kintore poppet head, Broken Hill

There were numerous different mining companies that mined over the years.  An excellent book that goes into detail about the mining history and architecture of Broken Hill, and where I have sourced some of my information in this post is from the 2010 book “Broken Hill A Guide To The Silver City” by Elizabeth Vines, with photography by Bruce Tindale (unless otherwise noted).  The book was produced by the Broken Hill City Council and is available at the Visitor Information Centre and the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery for $19.95.  It’s a great book I recommend it.

Today

Fast forward to today and there are three mining companies operating in and around Broken Hill.  I have links to their websites below which provides more information about the projects they are involved in.

Perilya Limited – an Australian base-metal mining and exploration company.

CBH Resources Limited – Rasp Mine.

Bemax Resources Limited.

There is so much I could write about on this topic however, I have only just touched the surface of the subject to give you a taste of the story.

Cheers, Jane D

1.       “Broken Hill A Guide To The Silver City” Elizabeth Vines p. 30

2.       “Broken Hill A Guide To The Silver City” Elizabeth Vines, p. 6

3.       “Broken Hill A Guide To The Silver City” Elizabeth Vines, p. 7