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Draft:Great Cobar Copper Mine

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Great Cobar Copper Mine was a copper mine at Cobar, New South Wales, Australia. It operated between 1871 and 1919, and was in its time the largest copper mine in Australia. The operations included mining and smelting operations, at Cobar, and electrolytic copper refining, at Lithgow, as well as a coal mine and coke works at Rix's Creek near Singleton.

History

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Discovery

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Three well and bore sinkers, Hartman, Campbell (a.k.a. Kempf) and Gibb, took samples, from an outcrop of what was later the Great Cobar lode. At Gilgunnia, they showed those samples to Sidwell Kruge—a woman of Cornish origin, previously residing in the South Australian copper-mining town of Burra—who identified the ores as containing copper. Sidwell's husband Henry Kruge, smelted some of the ore samples in a blacksmith's forge to prove beyond doubt that the ore contained copper.[1][2][3][4]

Early mining

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Great Cobar Copper Mining Company

Formation of the Great Cobar Copper Syndicate (1876 - 1889)

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At the end of 1875, the Cobar and South Cobar companies were amalgamated into one entity, which was registered as the Great Cobar Copper Syndicate in January 1876.[5][6] Copper was being shipped from Bourke, when water levels in the Darling would allow steamboats to come up the Darling River.[5]

Firewood and remoteness

The mine was idle by 1889.

Great material on this period here http://media.lrrsa.org.au/adom149/Light_Railways_149.pdf

Great Cobar Mining Syndicate and Growth (1894-1906)

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The next phase of the mine's development is associated with two brothers, William Longworth (1846-1928) and Thomas Longworth (1857-1927). After the death of their father in a mining accident, in 1884, the brothers became joint owners of a small coal mine at Rix's Creek, near Singleton, in the Upper Hunter Valley. Taking their brother-in-law, W. W. Robinson, and Albert Gould as partners, the brothers expanded their coal mine and built coke ovens., under the business name of the Singleton Coal and Coke Company. Around 1890, the partners became interested in the then idle Great Cobar mine, initially as an outlet for their coke.[7] <<ex-manager Dunstan's role.>>

The completion of a railway line to Cobar in 1892,[8] made it feasible to bring coke from Rix's Creek to Cobar. Coke would allow use of water jacket furnaces, a type of blast furnace used for non-ferrous metal smelting, in place of the less efficient wood-fuelled reverberatory furnaces that had been used previously at Cobar. This would reduce costs and be critical to unlocking the potential of the mine, even at lower prevailing copper prices. The partners began negotiations to operate the mine on tribute and, with Albert Dangar, formed the Great Cobar Copper Mining Syndicate in 1894.[7][9] Thomas Longworth relocated to Cobar to manage the operations there, which by 1898, included five water jacket furnaces.

The Great Cobar ore included significant amounts of gold. The syndicate established an electrolytic copper refinery at Lithgow, which allowed the valuable gold to be recovered, while simultaneously upgrading the crude copper produced at the Cobar smelters. William Longworth took charge of this part of the venture, together with the Great Cobar colliery, which was established in 1899 to supply the refinery with coal to generate the electricity it needed.

By 1900, with copper prices at £70 per ton, and an additional £20 per ton from the recovered gold, the syndicate was able to buy the mine outright, eliminating the £15 per ton being paid to the original lessees under the tribute mining agreement. From 1900, William and Thomas Longworth alternated as manager at Cobar.

<<Copper Mine Branch 1897 , bring in the coke>>In 1901, a short branch line was opened from a junction on the copper mine Branch near Cobar to the Occidental Mine at Wrightville. Called the Peak branch, it would never be extended to the Peak mine as was originally planned.... The branch had sidings at the Great Cobar (the rest of the old Copper Mine Branch) and Chesney mines, allowing ore from the Chesney Mine to be carried to the Great Cobar smelters more readily. ..... metallurgical problem .....

The Federation Drought badly affected Cobar, to prevent the closing of the operations and 600 men losing their jobs, the syndicate persuaded the railway commissioners to supply water trains from Warren, on Macquarie River, during the worst seven months of the 1902 drought to prevent closure of the mine and the dismissal of 600 men, and to reduce freight rates when copper prices fell in 1903.

When did they buy Chesney and why?? Peak mine???

Great material here (http://media.lrrsa.org.au/abet154/Light_Railways_154.pdf)

Sale and aftermath for the syndicate

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In 1906, the syndicate sold to an English firm, Great Cobar Ltd, for £1,006,000, of which £800,000 cash divided among the six principals.[7]

<<who was the sixth principal?>> Dr Richard Read ..... see light rail for better explanation.

The principals then set up Australian Woollen Mills, in 1908, and made a second fortune, especially by making khaki uniforms for the Australian Army during the First World War. Thomas Longworth was the chairman and William Longworth was a director. Both brothers, became immensely wealthy by the standards of their day.

In 1905, << check >>Thomas Longworth bought Woollahrah House, a very large estate on land now comprising some of the most desirable waterfront real estate in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. He lived there until his death in 1927, after which the house was demolished and the land was sub-divided.[10][7] The gatehouse of the estate survives, as Rose Bay police station.[11] One of his sons was William (Bill) Longworth (1892–1969), later a prominent businessman, but as a young man a competitive swimmer, who completed at the 1912 Olympic Games, qualifying for but missing the 100m final and 1500m semi-finals due to illness. He was an early exponent of the freestyle swimming technique known as the 'Australian crawl'.[12]

Both brothers owned steam yachts. Thomas's was Cobar,[7] and William's was Ena, which survives as a rare example of this type of vessel.[13]

Great Cobar Limited (1906 - 1914)

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Registered in England, in 1906, to take over the assets of the Great Cobar Copper Syndicate.[14] 150,000 new £5 shares and £750,000 in 6% debentures were authorised, new capital totalling £1,500,000, not all of these were issued at the time. The assets acquired included the coal mine and coke works at Rix's Creek (near Singleton),[15] the Chesney Mine (south of Cobar, at Wrightville) and the Peak Gold mine (south of Wrightville)

Great material here http://media.lrrsa.org.au/unit159/Light_Railways_159.pdf

Expansion

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A spectacular explosion destroyed the explosives magazine at the Great Cobar Mine, on 25 January 1908.[16][17][18]

Light rail magazine articles.

Company failure

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Reopening, contention with C.S.A. Company, and final closure (1916-1919)

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Wartime saw increase in copper prices and huge demand. Vast quantities of copper were needed for brass bullet and shell cartridge casings. The price of copper rose in response to the demand, and the British Government sought to control supplies of the metal in its colonies and the Dominions.

The mine reopened in 1916.

An extension of the railway line from Cobar to the C.S.A. Mine, at Elouera to the north of Cobar, was under construction during 1917,[19] and it opened in January 1918.[20] One of the reasons that had been used to justify the railway extension was to ship low-grade 'basic' ore from the C.S.A. to the smelters of the Great Cobar Mine; it would be mixed with Great Cobar's 'silicaceous' ore, as a flux for smelting, replacing limestone brought from much further away by rail.[21][22] In 1917, the C.S.A. started using the first of its own water-jacket blast furnaces at its mine site.[23]

At latest by early 1919, there was an acrimonious disagreement, between the managements of the two companies, probably motivated by an underlying unresolved contention over which company would dominate copper production on the Cobar mining field. The outcomes were that Great Cobar did not take any of C.S.A.'s low-grade ore as flux, [24] Great Cobar still needed to source limestone, and the new railway was under-utilised, although it was still of great benefit to C.S.A..

The existential threat to the Great Cobar came from the falling price of copper resulting from the end of the First World War in 1918. During the war copper was £135 per ton, falling to £ 122, and by March 1919 to £78, with the prospect of a further decline. At the prevailing copper prices, the Great Cobar's vast operations were not profitable. In March 1919, the Great Cobar mine and its smelters closed, throwing hundreds of men out of work in Cobar.[25]

Aftermath

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The closure of the Great Cobar was just the first in the Cobar region, taking with it the Chesney Mine, at Wrightville, which depended upon its smelter.[26] In 1920, the C.S.A mine at Elouera closed unexpectedly due to an underground fire,[27] as did the Gladstone Mine, at Wrightville, which used that mine's smelter.[28] In July 1921, the Occidental Gold Mine at Wrightville closed,[29] and the widespread expectations that it would reopen were dashed in July 1922.[30] After the Mount Boppy Gold Mine, at Canbelego, finally closed, in 1922, there were no longer any large mines working in the Cobar region,[31] and there would not be until work resumed at the Occidental Mine, subsequently the New Occidental Mine, in 1933.[32] Many miners and their families left the district altogether.[33]

Ores and technology

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Lithgow copper refinery

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Information on refining 1907[34] (Redo citation as news later)

Lithgow copper refinery c.1899.

Remnants

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The administration offices of the company have become the Great Cobar Museum and Visitor Information Centre, part of the Great Cobar Heritage Centre that is located on the former mine and smelter site.[35]

Some convertors from the Great Cobar have been recovered and provided to the heritage centre.[36]





References

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  1. ^ "MISCELLANEOUS". Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929). 1907-12-21. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  2. ^ "OLD COBAR: SOME NOTES". Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946). 1930-12-13. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  3. ^ McQueen, Ken (October 2016). "Site Descriptions - Cobar Discovery and Development of the Great Cobar Copper Mine" (PDF). Papers of 22nd Australasian Mining History Conference: 36.
  4. ^ Alderdice, Leila (1994). Gilgunnia, a special place. [Young, N.S.W.]: L. Alderdice. pp. 13, 14. ISBN 0-646-20020-8. OCLC 38354776.
  5. ^ a b "MINING NEWS". Adelaide Observer. 1876-04-29. p. 20. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  6. ^ Consultancy, Archive Research. "Great Cobar Copper Syndicate - Corporate entry - Guide to Australian Business Records". www.gabr.net.au. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  7. ^ a b c d e Atchison, John, "Thomas Longworth (1857–1927)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2024-07-28
  8. ^ "Cobar Branch". nswrail.net. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  9. ^ Daley, Louise T., "Albert Augustus Dangar (1840–1913)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2024-07-28
  10. ^ "Woollahra Point [cartographic material] : Woollahra House and grounds. ("Woollahra Point in the Estate of the late Thomas Longworth" Auction sale [...] Friday 28th September 1928")". State Library of NSW.
  11. ^ "Rose Bay Police Station | The Dictionary of Sydney". dictionaryofsydney.org. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  12. ^ Walsh, G. P., "William (Bill) Longworth (1892–1969)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2024-07-28
  13. ^ Scanlon, Mike (2015-05-15). "HISTORY: Steam Yacht Ena's Longworth link". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  14. ^ Consultancy, Archive Research. "Great Cobar Limited - Corporate entry - Guide to Australian Business Records". www.gabr.net.au. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  15. ^ "A LEVIATHAN COPPER COMPANY". Sydney Morning Herald. 1906-06-15. p. 11. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  16. ^ "Viewed from Wrightville". Cobar Herald. 1908-01-28. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  17. ^ "THE COBAR EXPLOSION". Evening News (Sydney). 1908-01-27. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  18. ^ "The Magazine Explosion". Cobar Herald. 1908-02-04. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  19. ^ "TRAINS AND TRAMS". Daily Telegraph. 25 April 1917. p. 13. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  20. ^ "C.S.A. Mines Ltd". Western Age. 15 January 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  21. ^ "DOES THE C.S.A. MINE JUSTIFY THE LINE?". Cobar Herald. 5 June 1914. p. 4. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  22. ^ "Cobar's Prospects". Western Age. 13 September 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  23. ^ McQueen, Ken (September 2006). "Hidden Copper: The Early History of the Cornish, Scottish and Australian (C.S.A.) Mine, Cobar, NSW" (PDF). Journal of Australasian Mining History. 4.
  24. ^ "DIRECTORS OF C.S.A. INTERVIEW MINISTER FOR WORKS, STATE GREAT COBAR REFUSED TO TAKE ORE". Western Age. 7 February 1919. p. 3. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  25. ^ "COBAR THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION". Sydney Mail. 19 March 1919. p. 17. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  26. ^ McKillop, Bob (October 2004). "Mining Railways of Cobar - 7. Other Mines, 1871-1922" (PDF). Light Railways (179). Light Railway Research Society of Australia Inc.: 4, 5, 6.
  27. ^ "FIRE IN C.S.A. MINE". Sydney Morning Herald. 1920-07-16. p. 9. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  28. ^ "Mining News". Western Age. 1920-08-27. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-01-17.
  29. ^ "The Occidental Gold Mine". Western Age. 1921-07-29. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  30. ^ "IN AND ABOUT THE MINES". Daily Telegraph. 1922-07-13. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  31. ^ "MT. BOPPY CLOSES DOWN". Lithgow Mercury. 1921-09-07. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-08-30.
  32. ^ "COBAR GOLD MINE REOPENED". Courier-Mail. 1935-08-08. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  33. ^ "INDUSTRIAL MATTERS". Barrier Miner. 1921-10-24. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-08-30.
  34. ^ "THE LITHGOW VALLEY. - COPPER-SMELTING INDUSTRY. GREAT COBAR, LIMITED. COPPER-REPINING. QUALITY OF E.L.C. INGOTS, (BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.) III. - The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) - 30 Apr 1907". Trove. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  35. ^ Service, NSW Department of Customer (2023-02-23). "The Great Cobar Museum and Visitor Information Centre | NSW Government". www.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  36. ^ "Pieces of history from Great Cobar delivered to museum – The Cobar Weekly". cobarweekly.com.au. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
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