Mount Bischoff

Mount Bischoff is a mountain and former tin mine in the north-western region of Tasmania, Australia. The mountain is situated adjacent to Savage River National Park, near the town of Waratah.

The mountain was named in the early nineteenth century after the chairman of the Van Diemen's Land Company, James Bischoff. Tin was discovered there in 1871 by James "Philosopher" Smith.^[2]

The first operator of the mine was the Mount Bischoff Tin Mining Company,^[3] which used a sluice supplied with water from the top of the waterfall in Waratah.^[4][5] In June 1883, the mine installed one of the first hydro-electric generators in Australia, using it to light the offices, workshop and manager's house.^[6][7]

The easy ore had all been extracted by 1893, when sluicing was discontinued. Mining continued as an open-cut on the face of the mountain, as well as underground. The manager of the mine from 1907 to 1919 was John Dunlop Millen, who was "credited with the modernisation of the mine’s facilities and was regarded by all those associated with the mine’s operations as an effective manager".^[8] The underground mine closed in 1914, although surface mining continued for some time, ceasing after the price of tin slumped in 1929. In 1942, the mine was reopened by the Commonwealth Government to support the war effort, but it closed again in 1947.^[9]

Between 1900 and mid-1940, the mine was connected to the Emu Bay Railway by the Waratah Branch of that railway, which ran from Guildford Junction to Waratah.

In 2008, after after several earlier minor attempts, Metals X Limited, a Perth-based tin mining company, through its subsidiary Bluestone Mines Tasmania Pty Ltd, the operator of the Renison Bell tin mine, decided to mine the remaining ore at Mount Bischoff, to blend with ore from its Renison Bell operation. A large open cut operation, taking in all the old historic workings, was developed , with the ore being trucked 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the Renison Bell processing plant. At the time, ore reserves at Mount Bischoff were estimated to be 845,000 tonnes (832,000 long tons) grading at 1.20 percent tin. In 2009/10 198,000 tonnes (195,000 long tons) of ore was mined at the Mount Bischoff open-cut, which produced 6,267 tonnes (6,168 long tons) of tin in concentrate.

By 2015, the mine at Mount Bischoff was on care and maintenance, but Bluestone Mines Tasmania Pty Ltd was continuing its exploration program.^[10]

1. ^ "Mount Bischoff (TAS)". Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government.
2. ^ Bacon, Carol (2006). Mount Bischoff. Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
3. ^ "Mount Bischoff Tin Mining Company (1873 - )". Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation. Swinburne University of Technology. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
4. ^ "Mount Bischoff". The Tasmanian. Tasmania, Australia. 22 February 1879. p. 7. Retrieved 2 January 2020 – via Trove.
5. ^ Ulrich, George H. F. (George Henry Frederick); Mount Bischoff Tin Mining Co (1874), The Mount Bischoff tin mines : Mr. Ulrich's report to the directors of the Mount Bischoff Tin Mining Company, Launceston, retrieved 2 January 2020
6. ^ Burgess, Julian (2016). Duck Reach and Launceston's Electric Light. Christopher (Gus) Green. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-994 1608-1-2.
7. ^ "The engineering feats of Tasmania's hydro electric system". ABC Hobart. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
8. ^ Bennett, Scott (2004). "Millen, John Dunlop (1877–1941)". The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate. Vol. 2. Melbourne University Press.
9. ^ Interpretive sign at the former mine site
10. ^ "Mt Bischoff". Mining Link. Retrieved 1 July 2015.