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Iron Blow was the site of the earliest major mining venture at Mount Lyell on the west coast of
The first shot on the site was in January 1884 - and most local prospectors were camped in the Linda Valley to the east of the Mount Owen - Mount Lyell ridge - also known as
Self Acting Haulage of Mount Lyell 2ft Tramway in Tasmania.jpg, Foot of the Haulage line in early 1890s
Mount Lyell Mine - Foot of the haulage line (1895) (27698485815).jpg, Foot of the Haulage line in the 1895
Haulage Line by 1900 with loss of vegetation.jpg, Foot of the Haulage line by 1900 with denuded landscape showing
Tasmania
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, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
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, Australia in 1883.
Original form
Geoffrey Blainey describes the appearance prior to its being mined:They (Those mentioned above) examined the strange formation. It jutted twenty or thirty feet above the surface and was split by deep cracks and crevices as if a great explosion had fractured the rock and flung slabs far down the hill...(they)... had seen no similar outcrop in their brief mining experience. What lay beneath the ironstone crust?
Mining
The first shot on the site was in January 1884 - and most local prospectors were camped in the Linda Valley to the east of the Mount Owen - Mount Lyell ridge - also known as Philosophers Ridge
Philosophers Ridge is the long spur that connects Mount Lyell and Mount Owen in the West Coast Range of Western Tasmania.
On it are significant sites of the Mount Lyell copper field.
The original Iron Blow was on its midslopes, discovered o ...
The townsite of Penghana, the present site of Queenstown - to the west was still thick rainforest.
Following the establishment of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company
Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company was a Tasmanian mining company formed on 29 March 1893, most commonly referred to as ''Mount Lyell''. Mount Lyell was the dominant copper mining company of the West Coast from 1893 to 1994, and was based in ...
in 1893, the Iron Blow orebody was mined until 1929.
Haulage
The transport of ore from the Iron Blow down to the operations area of the mine linking to the railway, was by the commonly known ''Haulage'', although more technical terms included ''Self Acting Haulage''.End of the era
The cessation of the Iron Blow mining was also linked in with the demise of the Mount Lyell pyritic smelting - the cessation of Robert Carl Sticht's smelters and methods.Geoffrey Blainey, The Peaks of Lyell, Third edition, Chapter 25 'The End of an Era',p.260 The development of the West Lyell Open cut, and the later development of the Prince Lyell ore bodies removed all vestiges of the original workings.See also
*Copper extraction techniques
Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper consists of a series of physical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, loca ...
* West Coast Tasmania Mines
The mines of the West Coast of Tasmania have a rich historical heritage as well as an important mineralogical value in containing or having had found, specimens of rare and unusual minerals. Also, the various mining fields have important roles ...
References
Further reading
* *External links
* {{coord, 42, 4, 6, S, 145, 35, 26, E, type:landmark_region:AU, display=title Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company West Coast Range 1883 establishments in Australia