Warren was born in Newton Abbot, England,[1] and from age thirteen was working in the mining business.

[9] He resigned from the Paramatta company on 25 November 1876, and for two and a half years was in charge of the Balade mine, New Caledonia.

[10] He returned to South Australia, where he served as manager of the short-lived Bird-in-Hand gold mine near Woodside.

[11][12] Zinc sulphide, which constituted a fair percentage of the ore body, was much more difficult to reduce to the metal than the oxides and carbonates of silver and lead, which were the initial source of the mines' wealth.

Greenway, engineer for Block 14 and later the Broken Hill South mines, put considerable effort into crushing and concentrating the ore, which could then be more economically shipped to Europe for processing.

[13] Warren held fast against the unions by taking on new workers, mostly from Moonta, and still meeting their production targets.