xenith | Entries tagged with mining

Revisiting the west coat. In fact, revisiting a site that I posted photos for back in January because that is what we did, and we discovered the more interesting parts.

So this is the lookout that I showed last time. The area was the site of a processing plant operated by the Tasmanian Metal Extraction Company (TME) in 1913/1914. This lookout is just off the Williamsford Road, and gives you a view over the site, but there's no access down to it.

However, if you leave turn off the main path just before the lookout and go around to the right and then around to the left, you eventually end up on the area below the lookout.

( Read more... )

Just outside Rosebery this is a dirt road that runs off the south. There are number of signs at the turn off that point to "Williamsford 6 km", "Car Park 6 km", Montezuma Falls. About one kilometre in though is a small car park and tower.

"Track to T.M.E site".

( Read more... )

The Central Deborah Mine in Bendigo.

Central Deborah Gold Mine is a quartz-reef gold mine located on the Bendigo Flat near the Bendigo Creek. The mine operated from 1939 to 1954 and was the last commercial mine to operate in the wealthy Bendigo goldfields.

During this time miners extracted almost one tonne of gold (929kg) from the ground, which would be worth around $37 million in today's prices! From

Tour starts here.

The tour group consisted of the tour guide, an extra body from the archive room(?) because they need to send an extra person if there's just one person in tour group-- Hang on. One person in the tour group = me. By myself. OK....

So the whole group of one is taken over to the change rooms and outfitted with overalls (which were not going to go around me, unless they were too big elsewhere, obviously I'm not miner shape), boots, hard hat and a lamp (which is on the hat, but attached to battery thing at the waist).

( Going down )

A sequel to my Maldon post earlier today :)

Founded in the late 1850s, all the early work was carried out in an open cutting, between where the main shaft and the engine house stood. Miners were granted claims 30 feet square, and out of these claims much gold must have been taken, but the amount will never be known. ... The method of hauling dirt and stone was by means of a windlass. This was slow and hard work so it was decided to call a meeting of the claim holders to pool resources.

The outcome of the meeting was to form a company and to purchase a winding machine. A new shaft was sunk while the engine, engine house and poppet legs were being erected. With installation of the machinery, the ground was worked, with varying returns for about 3 years. Then at the 300 feet level a heavy flow of water was met. The plant was not capable of dealing with it so another meeting was held to form a more powerful company. This was called the "New Beehive Company" and comprised 30,000 shares. New engines, boilers, large pumping plant and quartz crushing battery were purchased.

Extract from "The New Beehive Mine, based on a brief history of the Beehive Mine by Garnet Pearce of Maldon", a leaflet I picked up. The mine closed in 1918.

( More )

( No words, but lots of photos )

Any guesses on what this? :)

Been meaning to post these for ages but I keep putting it off. Nothing exciting here, so feel free to skip unless you're really curious what the above it, don't want to go to Branxholm or are interested in Chinese miners.

( See more )

(I'm trying out larger photo sizes. They're a bit big for my monitor but they might look better on newer ones.)

( Queenstown )

Zeehan, the silver city. This is somewhere I'd like to go back to one day to get some better photos.

In the 1880s, silver and lead deposits were discovered and the town grew, quickly. One book I have tells me the population in 1908 was 10,000. Other sources give similar figures. Do I sound surprised? Those other sources tell me that in 1900, Launceston's population was 18,000 and Hobart's was 25,000. That was one big town out on the far west coast, a city indeed.

( Read more... )

I'm going to continue the mining theme with some more mining towns, this time down the West Coast. If you're not interested in mining towns, look away NOW.

Right. I've included some of these in my West Coast trip report back in 2005, but that was years ago and there are some additional photos. Unfortunately, we only made a quick visits to these towns so I only have a small number of photos of sometimes dubious quality.

The west coast is wild and remote, much more than you'd think from the map. It's all mountains and rain forest, winding roads and wild rivers, and some of the richest mineral deposits in the world.

I was going to do some background & start with Zeehan, but I have photos of Rosebery already uploaded and it is the first town of substance you come to from the north. So I'll start there, and add in background details as the come up.

Main street (Agnes St). The pub on the corner seems to have been done over.

( Read more... )

A story of gold, and what people will do to get it. Mostly though, it's a story of numbers.

In writing this, I've relied on extracts from two books: Town With A History, by Coultman Smith, first published 1978 and Beaconsfield Gold, by Janet Kerrison, first published in 1963. (From now on, I'll refer to these as TWH & BG)

Boiler house
Early attempts at mining in the district were for iron, in the 1870s there were a number of small companies extracting iron. The quality wasn't sufficient to make it a viable long term proposition though. It's still there of course, and with modern methods, probably profitable but it doesn't have the same allure as that other metal.

( Read more... )

Do Not Read This Title

Entries tagged with mining

T.M.E Site again

T.M.E Site

Into the gold mine

Rail trip: Maldon mine site

Rail trip: in photos

In the trees

Queenstown

Zeehan

Rosebery

Beaconsfield Gold

Profile

Links

Most Popular Tags

Syndicate

Expand Cut Tags