terain

Construction at Mt. Isa Mines, ca. 1920

from State Library of Queensland

• Barry Merrick said:

  Definitely not 1920. A construction photograph taken on the northern side of this with similar viewing aspect to the south is captioned Mill Site. 31st October 1929. The large crane jib is being used as a "Gin Pole" to erect the very large steel posts. The Urquhardt Shaft is being sunk with a wooden headframe.

• Vesna Verencevic said:

  The Mount Isa Mine Early Infrastructure, established in the 1920s and early 1930s and located on the western edge of Mount Isa, is important as surviving evidence of the establishment of large-scale mining by the Mount Isa Mining Company (now known as Mount Isa Mines Limited (MIM)). The development of the mining infrastructure was on a scale rare in Queensland mining, and the place has the potential to reveal further information that may contribute to the knowledge of the early mining processes used in Queensland. John Campbell Miles discovered the ores of Mount Isa as lead outcrops early in 1923. Such a late find on a mineral field closely prospected for nearly sixty years was probably due to the fact that most Queensland prospectors were looking for copper or gold and lead mining was an alien tradition. However, while the discovery was first acknowledged in 1923, it is not improbable that the Mount Isa deposits were long known and ignored. Lawlor Shaft and Winding Plant (1920s) Robert Lawlor held the 2.5ha Crystal Lease at Top Camp on the new Mount Isa field when the government geologist, EC Saint-Smith, inspected the area in September 1923. This lease was consolidated into Mount Isa Mines holdings by the end of 1924 but Lawlor's Shaft remained as the major access point to ores in the Rio Grande lode during the exploration and ore proving phase (1925-9). The headframe and ancillary buildings were featured in a photograph in the Queensland Government Mining Journal, 15 August 1929. Urquhart Shaft and Headframe (1930-31) Mount Isa Mine Power Station (1931) From mid-1927 the technical management of Mount Isa Mine was in the hands of the Urquhart group (formerly known as the Russo-Asiatic Consolidated). With their increased capital they set about developing the "most modern mine of the age." Source: apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=601182