Great Cobar mine

[1] At Gilgunnia, they showed the samples to Sidwell Kruge—a woman of Cornish origin, previously residing in the copper-mining town of Burra—who identified the streaks as ores containing copper.

[11] By mid 1874, Charles Campbell, was keeping an inn, at Gongolgon, on the Bogan River; before the direct road from Bourke to Cobar was opened, it was a stopping place on a longer but better-watered route.

[63] With copper prices around £70 per ton, the syndicate bought the mine outright, taking ownership on 12 December 1900, ending the tribute agreement and thereby eliminating the royalty payments.

[71] To prevent the closing of the operations and 600 men losing their jobs, the Syndicate persuaded the railway commissioners to supply water by train from Warren, on Macquarie River, during the worst seven months of 1902, and also to reduce rail freight rates.

[65] Given the risk to their own money tied up in an asset subject to large fluctuations in the copper price, as typified by the 1902 crisis, and a significant paper capital gain, the Syndicate were likely sellers at that valuation, but the option lapsed, in 1903.

[103] On 14 August 1906, the promoters of Great Cobar Ltd gave Dr Richard Read, Chairman of the Syndicate, a cheque for £775,000, as final payment, which with an earlier deposit of £25,000 summed to the £800,000 purchase price.

[108] One of his sons was William (Bill) Longworth (1892–1969), later a prominent businessman, but was, 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).

By mid 1908, with the shares trading at £6½, some were drawing attention to the problems of the financial structuring of Great Cobar Limited, particularly the impact of asset dilution and debenture interest payments, and advising investors to sell the stock.

[123] Woolner and Company had “incurred heavy losses through the default of clients, falling markets and the stagnation of business due to the South African war.” By the end of 1904, the firm was insolvent, but continued trading, illegally.

[121] Hugh Woolner survived the sinking of Titanic, in 1912, when he and his Swedish friend, Mauritz Håkan Björnström-Steffansson, leapt aboard collapsible lifeboat 'D', as it was being lowered into the water.

In New South Wales alone, there were examples of mine site smelters at Burraga, Cadia, Sunny Corner, Cangai, Currawang, Bobadah, Nymagee, Mount Hope, Girilambone, Illewong, Elouera, and Shuttleton.

Having to pay interest on the debentures, at very least, the new company needed to both increase production and constrain costs; the path to profitability lay through a large expansion in capacity and intensive mechanisation.

[152] The managing director, John Kendall, like Blakemore, ultimately seems to have been held responsible for the poor performance of the new plant, and ceased to be connected with Great Cobar, after June 1909.

After the panic of 1907, copper prices fell and the smelter, owned by Britannia Mining & Smelting Company, closed in January 1908, probably resulting in Bellinger being available to work at the Great Cobar.

Hertzig, of the firm Messrs. Bewick, Moreing and Co, seems to have confirmed this view, but ominously reported an expected remaining life of the mine of only seven years, at the forecast rate of production.

[167] The huge chimney was to ensure that the noxious gases from smelting, largely sulphur dioxide, were carried far from the mine and the nearby township.Large amounts of water were necessary, including as boiler feedwater, for cooling the water-jacket furnaces, and for the froth flotation plant.

Each blower was directly coupled to a tandem compound steam engine, of 540 indicated horsepower, running at 110 rpm, and so providing an air blast of up to 33,000 cubic feet per minute.

[181] The electrolytic refinery at Lithgow initially remained in operation under Great Cobar Limited,[62] but was closed down in August 1911,[163] retaining only the coal mine and coke works.

Reducing the number of shifts could never be an option at Great Cobar, because the mine, at best, could barely provide enough low-grade ore to feed the large smelter, which used water jacket furnaces that were best operated continuously.

Blakemore had wanted to cover the seventh day by a new gang of workers, but unions were able instead to obtain additional overtime shifts at a rate of time-and-a-quarter, in a ruling by the Arbitration Court, and by threatening the company with strike action.

[194] In June 1908, James Cassidy, a 'platman' (a person who puts skips into and out of the winder cage, at an underground level), was killed by an unknown object that fell down the shaft.

[199] In September 1910, Edward Atkins died after falling, unseen by other miners, into an ore pass[200] (a vertical or near-vertical opening made to provide more convenient material handling by gravity and to reduce haulage distances).

[209] In August 1911, a miner, Oliver Rafferty, was working on a boring machine, when he overbalanced and fell backwards onto a pile of rocks, hitting his head, and then rolling 25 feet down an ore pass; he died on the way to the hospital.

[215] In November 1913, Simon Burrs was boodling (moving material by shovel[216]) when the heap, upon which he was standing, collapsed; he fell headfirst, and was completely buried, dying of asphyxia while he was being freed.

[221] In November 1911, Thomas Jobson, an engine driver in the surface workings, caught his left hand in a conveyor belt, and his arm needed to be amputated at the elbow.

[224][225][226] In January 1910, a shift boss at the Great Cobar concentrators named Delaney, had left his work to rescue a goat from a dog, when he fell into an unprotected mine shaft.

[240] It recognised that there had been a woefully inadequate allowance for depreciation—insufficient even to cover the write-off of the old Syndicate plant— but did not call a halt to the loss-making operations, which were burdened by the crippling interest payments to debenture holders.

The initial mistake was over capitalisation The purchase consideration amounted to over £1,000,000 talking in round figures and the preliminary expenses to £160,000 leaving only about £114,746 working capital which was far too small and the company had been suffering in consequence, Why was so high a price paid for this property?

At the instigation of the local representative of the receiver, David Fell, the remaining £40,000 was allocated to the New South Wales Government, which agreed to similar terms as the participating debenture holders.

[83] The chairman of its board was the ex-general manager of the Great Cobar, George Blakemore, and he aggressively pursued a policy to make the expanded C.S.A the dominant mine on the field.