Ah, Irvinebank, just east of Herberton, north of Ravenshoe & Mt Garnet, all being Sth west of Cairns. Thanks Barbara, very interesting. Cheers. Annie > Barbara OConnor <maurie777@ozemail.com.au> wrote: > > Short answer - Far North Queensland > > Long answer - from > http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/chims/placeDetail.html?siteId=21573 > > The former La Societe Francaise des Metaux Rares treatment plant > operated > between 1911 and 1913. The plant used an unusual dry blowing treatment > process for the rare mineral, wolfram. Wolfram was discovered in 1894 in > the > headwaters of the Hodgkinson River scattered over the surface as bunches > in > quartzose boulders or in drifts interdispersed with coarse gravel. In > 1899 > when wolfram was at its highest price, 240 tons were sent away for £38 > per > ton. The township, Wolfram, named after the mineral, formed on the banks > of > the Bulluburrah Creek in two parts, Upper Wolfram or Top Camp, and Lower > > Wolfram or Bottom Camp. In 1900, 91 pounds of molybdenite was discovered > at > Wolfram. This was said to contain some of the finest specimens of > molybdenite discovered in Australia. There were 100 men working at > Wolfram > by late 1900, on wolfram, molybdenite and bismuth. The Irvinebank Mining > > Company invested at Wolfram in 1900, appointing Alexander Gillan as > manager. > Demand for high grade wolfram, after the development of tungsten as a > lamp > filament in 1904, and for molybdenite for use in patent alloys, led to > an > earlty interest in rare minerals by British firms, the most prominent > being > George G. Blackwell and Sons of Liverpool. Prices in 1904 for both > metals > were high- up to £200 a ton for molybdenite and £140 a ton for wolfram - > and > attracted many goldminers. Of the 1,136 people on the Hodgkinson by > 1904, > 700 were miners working at Wolfram. By 1909 wolfram was returning > £41,820 > compared to the value of gold at £7,089. But the rare metals industry > was > unstable - there was insecurity in the unknown overseas markets where > demand > fluctuated erratically and local miners were never sure of their > returns. So > a Wolfram Co-operative Association was formed to arrange advances and > shipments through intermediaries such as the New Zealand Loan and > Mercantile > Agency and WJ Lempriere and Co, but generally the local industry was > poorly > organised (Kirkman 1982: 189-190). The workings extended without a break > > from over 3 kms along the contact of the intrusive granite with older > porphyries and slates from high rugged slopes down to the valley of > Bulluburrah Creek (QGMJ 15 Jan 1913: 4). Initially settlement was > concentrated on the higher slopes at Top Camp. From 1904, 2,500 tons of > wolfram valued at £250,000 were produced at Wolfram Camp, half of which > went > through Moffatt's Irvinebank Co. Mill. The Irvinebank Mining Company set > up > a battery on Bullaburrah Creek in the lower valley. This battery was a > stabilising influence on Wolfram Camp, although it was closed for long > periods throughout 1909 because of strikes over the 44 hour week. It > operated again from 1910 to 1912 and was closed in the rationalisation > of > Irvinebank Mining Company's assets at the end of that year. The area > around > the mill in the lower valley became the main settlement after 1907. The > township, clustered on a ridge north of the battery, was at its peak > during > WWI. The wolfram mining industry passed through a depression for several > > years from 1910 chiefly because of the exhaustion of the residual > surface > accumulations of ore, thus ending the days of the gouger. La Societe > Francaise des Metaux Rares was registered in Queensland in 1911. That > same > year Frenchman, Mr Poulet, took over a number of mine dumps and tailing > heaps on behalf of French syndicate. The objective was to extract > wolfram, > molybdenite and bismuth from the lowest grade mixed-metal ore using a > specially designed treatment plant. The crushing plant was delivered in > August 1911 and the Queensland Government Mining Journal (15 Jan 1913: > 4) > reports that earthworks were underway in July 1912 for installation of > the > plant above Bulluburrah Creek in Upper Wolfram. The power plant imported > by > the company included an early 240 horsepower MAN diesel engine, type > A4V49, > weighing nearly 35,000kg that was coupled axially to a DC generator. An > extensive system of overhead wire ropeways to collect ore from mullock > heaps > and a dam in Bulluburrah Creek were some of the proposed constructions. > The > cost of installation was expected to be considerably over £50,000 and > required constant employment of 50 people, mostly skilled mechanics. > After a > few short and unsuccessful trial runs, the process plant was liquidated > in > 1913 because of the health hazards associated with the dry blowing > process. > The diesel engine was sold to Cooktown syndicate, and transported to the > > Louisa mine on the Palmer Goldfield. It now resides at the Great > Extended > Mine, Totley. Many of the mines were closed during WWI. The > Thermo-Electric > Ore Reduction Corporation plant built near the site of the Irvinebank > Company Mill at Lower Wolfram, sustained the district through the war > years > with the government paying fixed prices. After slumps in metal prices > after > the return of free market forces in March 1920 the Thermo Co. failed to > survive. Wolfram Camp was almost deserted within weeks of its shutdown. > In > 1926 Queensland Rare Metal Company erected a new battery on the site of > the > Irvinebank Mining Company's 10 head battery. As the prices of wolfram > and > molybdenite were declining there was little hope of success and the > plant > worked intermittently, with no crushing in 1934. Increased wolfram > prices in > 1935 attracted miners back to Wolfram and in 1937 the Pepper mine was > dewatered and 200 men working in the area. During WWII 3 tributers > worked > mines at Wolfram: Larkin, Lansky and Forget-me-Not. In 1946 the contract > > price for wolfram between the British and Australian governments > expired, no > further prices were quoted and operations ceased. There were small scale > > workings at some of the mines in 1947. There was a brief rush after the > outbreak of the Korean war in 1951. However, as the price of wolfram > fell > many mining activities ceased. The Mount Arthur Molybdenite Company NL > worked several mines in the Wolfram Camp area in the 1970s until they > sold > their equipment by tender in 1989. In 2006 there is renewed interest in > mining wolfram, molybdenite and bismuth at Wolfram, and an open cut > mining > operation approximately 1km south of the site of the former La Societe > Francaise des Metaux Rares plant, is proposed. > > All mail must be typed in plain text, any sent in HTML will bounce and > be a wasted effort > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUS-QLD-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message Cheers. Anne from Cairns, Aus.