The company's operations consisted of an iron ore mine near Brandy Creek, a blast furnace, jetty and township, on the Middle Arm of the estuary of the Tamar River, a tramway connecting the two sites, and charcoal and brick kilns.
In December 1877, the leases and other dormant assets of the THIC were sold cheaply to a group of wealthy and influential investors, under controversial circumstances.
In 1878, part of the THIC's original lease was combined with the operations of the adjacent 'Tasmania' gold mine, bringing huge profits to the new owners.
Soon after the first settlement in Northern Tasmania, at York Town in 1804, colonial settlers found that there were extensive deposits of iron ore in the hills to the west of the Tamar estuary.
[7] There was an increase in pig-iron prices in the early 1870s, which led to the formation of a number of colonial-era iron-making ventures in Australia.
However, this high price did not last long, as iron-making capacity increased and pig-iron was once again imported cheaply as ballast in sailing ships returning from England to Australia.
[11] Gould also noted that iron ore outcropped at various points in a line that "may be traced south-easterly continuously to Brandy Creek and thence in intervals along the flanks of Cabbage Tree Tier to the eastern side of Middle Arm Creek, some iron cropping out wherever the thickness of marine drift has been sufficiently stripped away to permit of its re-appearance.
He enlisted a group of Melbourne-based investors, including Hastings Cuningham and John Benn,[17] both of whom were wealthy and influential men.
[18][19] In June 1874, a new mineral lease over the THIC land was taken out in the personal names of Cuningham and Benn, presumably because they had contributed much of the capital for the new company.
The THIC controlled 620-acres of leasehold land, and another 83-acres of freehold land—in the area around what would become Swifte's Jetty—just south from where Brandy Creek flowed into the Middle Arm of the Tamar estuary.
In November 1873, it was advertising for 100,000 bricks to be provided within four months of the order[22] and 20,000 feet of 4-inch by 4-inch hardwood timber in 12-foot or 15-foot lengths,[23] which were the rails for its tramway.
[24] By March 1874, it was reported that “The Tamar Hematite Iron Company are progressing with their tramway and a small furnace, and hope to be successful in their experimental operations.”[25] The blast furnace was constructed on land, at a location now known as Scotchman’s Point on the Middle Arm of the estuary of the Tamar River, close to the modern-day town of Beaconsfield.
The company's relatively small furnace did not make quantities large enough to sustain a viable operation at the lower prices.
The THIC was facing a protracted period of low iron prices, during which its operations were suspended, without its dedicated Tasmanian manager and local representative.
In March 1877, the THIC's works at Swifte's Jetty were described as "deserted, desolate, and dull, suggestive of the much-lauded energy and enterprise of the Victorians in contradistinction to and at the expense of the Tasmanians !
Why those works should be allowed to go to "wreck and ruin" after so large an expenditure of capital, and with an inexhaustible supply of ore, remains a mystery to all but the initiated.
"[36] Such unsympathetic views of the Victorian investors' plight turned more hostile, once payable quartz-reef gold was found in the area.
In October 1877, the THIC resolved to dispose of its land and assets, with the stated hope that local Tasmanian capitalists might both resume the iron-making operation and work the gold.
[41] The blast furnace was constructed of freestone—quarried on-site—and bricks made from clay nearby, with a lining of imported English fire-bricks.
The water in the part of Middle Arm near the site of Swifte's Jetty is shallow and the bottom is exposed at low tide.
[50] Under the prevailing legislation, the THIC held the large lease only for the purpose of mining the iron ore and had no right to any gold found there, which was legally the property of the Crown.
[51] Some alluvial miners found payable amounts of gold on the THIC leasehold lands,[52][53] and some pegged claims.
[38] In July 1877, the cap of a payable gold reef—later known as the Tasmania Reef—was discovered on the eastern slope of Cabbage Tree Hill, by brothers William and David Dally.
It appears that at some point, the assets of the THIC were transferred to two of its major shareholders, Melbourne-based investors Hastings Cuningham and John Benn, in whose name the leaseholds were held.
The others were three wealthy Tasmanian politicians—William Dawson Grubb, William Hart, Samuel Tulloch—and a Launceston merchant, John Murphy.
It soon became known that the new owners' intransigent position was based on an interpretation of a newly-passed piece of legislation, the Mineral Lands Act of 1877.
[63] Overnight, the price paid for the leased land and other THIC assets by the new owners—mainly wealthy Tasmanian politicians—became a remarkable bargain.
The buyers' cronyism, connivance, and conflict of interest—as politicians who had recently debated and voted upon the new Act—seemed obvious,[64][65] but their actions had been completely legal.
The blast furnace was still standing in 1883, when the government geologist, Gustav Thureau, collected samples of THIC iron from its hearth.
The fencing was among the castings made at the foundry of William Peters, in Wellington St, Launceston, in late April 1875.