THE BROKEN HILL MINES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9117, 16 May 1891, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE BROKEN HILL MINES.

The history of the Broken Hill (says the Sydney Morning Herald) reads like a romance. Six years ago Broken Hill was unknown as a centre of population—to-day there are fully 20,000 souls residing there, and it will probably have a muster roll of 50,000 before five more years have elapsed. About 15 years ago a storekeeper at Menindie, on the Darling, whose name was Patrick Green, prospected in the Barrier Ranges for copper, but failed to find anything worth following up. In the latter part of 1882 discoveries of silver were mad 6at Thackeringa and Umborumberika (now called Silverton) and soon a population of about 4000 were attracted, and a wild and feverish excitement prevailed there for a considerable period. Many of the mines were, however, merely " wildcats," and much discredit was brought upon mining speculations by tho unscrupulous devices which were resorted to for the purpose of imposing upon the credulity of the public over certain Silverton properties, Somo of the mines were fairly rich. The Day Dream is reported to have yielded 90,000 tons of ore before it was floated into a company, and the Umberumberika is still actively worked. The real discovery was not made till some time later. Early in 1884 Charles Rash, a boundary rider on the Mount Gipps run, came across an outcrop of ore at a place called " The Broken Hill," a rugged elevation, about 1G miles distant, on the Queensland side of Silverton. He imagined that the ore contained only lead, but his overseer, Mr M'Cullooh, pronounced it to be silver - bearing. The first assays did not show any great richness, as 20 of them only ranged from 4oz to 450z of silver to the ton, with from 10 to CO percent, of lead. A syndicate was formed, and worked the ground in a feeble way till they struck a rich pocket of silver, and developed the enormous lode now being worked. Then the property was floated into a company, with 16,000 shares at £20 each, and from that time it has gradually developed into the greatest silver mine now known to the world. The stories told in connection with the mine would fill a volume, and they illustrate in a remarkable manner the vicissitudes of mining and the wonderful luck which follows some people, as well as the pluck and enterprise exhibited by the early promoters of the proprietary. We learn from the Barrier Mines Directory, from which several of the statements concerning Broken Hill are quoted, that up to the 30th of November of last year the Proprietary Mine had yielded 20,7G9,3060z of silver and 83,412 tons of lead. The total i value of these products was £3,782,963, but to this sum has to bo added the money paid for portions of the original leases sold to Block 14, British Blocks, and Block 10 companies. The amount paid in dividends and bonuses up to November 30, 1890, was £1,640,000. These enormous results were obtained in the short space of five years, Probably the famous Comstock lode, in Nevada, U.S., Is the only silver mine property that ever exceeded them. That lode before 1881 gave an annual return of £3,500,000, and the total yield from the time of its discovery in j 1869 to 1891 was about £70,000,000. The ore in the Comstock, however, carried onethird of gold and two-thirds of silver. The Broken Hill Proprietary lode is a continuous ore; that in the Comstock a succession of ore bunches, separated from each other by material that was valueless. In the silver ore at Broken Hill there is a little gold, especially where pyrites are found. The Comstock mine has been failing for a number of years, and it is considered that the more valuable ores are now exhausted. Experts predict that the Broken Hill mine* will flourish for fully 40 years more.

The mining manager of the Proprietary receives a salary of £3000 a year, to say nothing of perquisites in the shape of handsome fees for surpervising adjoining properties. Some of his Bub-managers are paid salaries equal to those of a Cabinet Minister. It is something to be a mining manager on "The Barrier." On the Proprietary mine alone there are 1044 underground men, and 1080 surface men, making a total of 2120. There is a large sawmill, carpenter's shop, and engineering shop near the mine, and a branch railway connects the latter with the station of the Silverton Tramway Company. The timber used in the mine ia mostly Oregon pine, imported direct from Puget Sound, via Port Pirie, South Australia. The average width of the Proprietary lode is 170 ft, though at one point it is 234 ft wide. The lode has been proved to a depth of over 320 ft. The Cornstock lode was was 327 ft wide, and it was worked down to a depth of 2200 ft in payable ore. There is no reason why the Broken Hill lode should not aUo go to that depth in payable ore. There is reason to believe that the Proprietary contains a larger body of ore than the Oomstock, though the gold in the latter makes the value of the returns larger. The Proprietary does its own smelting, and sends the bullion on to Sydney, via Port Pirie. The coke nsed in the smelting is English, and is also imported direct. The Proprietary mine is always open to the inspection of visitors, but all who make the trip down have to contribute 5s a head, and the money thus subscribed is handed over to the Broken Hill Hospital. The Proprietary consists of three 40-acre blocks, numbered 11, 12, and 13, and they are all worked under the same supervision —Mr Howell being mining manager, and Mr W. W. Harper the underground manager The latter was formerly employed in the Comstock mine. The Proprietary may be said to have paid from its start as a company, thus reversing the rule that applies to many mines which pay the prospectors but fail when worked by companies. The capital actually called up only amounted to £34,000, and £16,000 of this was afterwards returned to the shareholders.