The Zinc Corporation was formed in 1905 to treat zinc-rich ‘tailings’, the waste product of ore, purchased from other mines. In 1911, The Zinc Corporation acquired the South Blocks Co. and began underground mining at the southern end of the line of lode. The flotation mineral extraction process was pioneered at the site.
Ore was treated here before shipment as a concentrate to Port Pirie, on the South Australian coast, for smelting.
The Zinc Corporation acquired the leases of the Broken Hill South Blocks Company and further expanded the plant and operations. In the 1930s the Zinc Corporation began to build a new group of plant buildings as they shifted their operations to Freeman’s shaft and entered into a working agreement with New Broken Hill Consolidated Limited to run their operations jointly. The construction of the steel headframe over the Main Shaft commenced in 1936 as part of a major redevelopment of the Zinc Mine. Main Shaft had an ore hauling capacity of 0.9 million tonnes per year.
Adjacent to the shaft is a circular crushing house, concentration mill and offices. These were erected in 1939 and closed in 1988 when operations were transferred to the NBHC Mine by Pasminco.
Source: Visit Broken Hill (
www.visitbrokenhill.com/Discover/Silver-Trail/89.-Zinc-Ov...), Perilya, & Research Gate.
