A Comparison Of Ore Dressing Practices At Broken Hill, Australia

INTRODUCTION The Broken Hill orebody was discovered in 1883. The richness of the deposit encouraged rapid development of the field and within fifteen years ten mining companies were operating. By 1940, several companies located in the centre of the field with limited reserves, had ceased operation. These leases have been acquired by Broken Hill South Limited and North Broken Hill Limited. The four companies currently operating in the field are, in order of increasing production rate:¬- Broken Hill South Limited (BH South) North Broken Hill Limited (North BH) The Zinc Corporation, Limited (ZC) and New Broken Hill Consolidated Limited (NBHC) The tonnages treated by each company since the present plants have been in operation are shown in Figure 1. The leases are located as shown in Figure 2, and an aerial view of Broken Hill showing the spread of the City on each side of the line of lode is shown in Figure 3. The present treatment plants date back to the early 1930's when the BH South plant was built. The North BH and ZC plants were built in 1939 and NBHC's in 1952. The three plants built before 1940 have similar crushing and grinding flowsheets. NBHC differs in that it includes rod mills with consequent differences in fine crushing equipment.