Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company

Mount Lyell was the dominant copper mining company of the West Coast from 1893 to 1994, and was based in Queenstown, Tasmania.

[1] In the early stage of operations, Mount Lyell was surrounded by smaller competing leases and companies.

As a consequence the Mount Lyell company had utilised considerable resources on maintaining leases over areas of promising geology – as well as checking older mining locations on the west coast.

The Mount Lyell Mining Field, and the various activities of the company in Queenstown and the west coast of Tasmania were celebrated throughout the community.

Government guidelines saw tailings dams created and special measures taken to prevent any further pollution of the rivers and harbour.

Mining was suspended at Mount Lyell due to accidents in the 2010s and remains in mothball situation in the late 2010s.

Also, due to circumstances at the winding up of Mount Lyell significant amounts of company records were deposited with Tasmanian state archives.

[17] Research by the Supervising Scientist published in 1997 overwhelmingly identified the lease site as the major source of acid drainage-related pollutants affecting the rivers and harbour, with metals contamination from tailing and slag deposits being very minor in comparison.