Broken Hill

Broken Hill is an isolated mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. The world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton, has roots in the town. Broken Hill is located near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway and the Silver City Highway, in the Barrier Range. It is 220m above sea level, has an average rainfall of 235mm and summer temperatures that reach well over 40°C. The closest major city is Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, which is more than 500 km to the southwest. Unlike the rest of New South Wales, Broken Hill (and the surrounding region) observes Australian Central Standard Time, UTC+9:30, a time zone it shares with South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Broken Hill is Australia's longest-lived mining city. In 1844, the explorer Charles Sturt saw and named the Barrier Range, and at the time referred to a "Broken Hill" in his diary. Silver ore was later discovered on this broken hill in 1883 by a boundary rider named Charles Rasp. The "broken hill" that gives its name to Broken Hill actually comprised a number of hills that appeared to have a break in them. The broken hill no longer exists, having been mined away.

Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver-lead-zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the orebody stood out as a jagged rocky ridge amongst undulating plain country on either side. This was known as the broken hill by early pastoralists. Miners called the ore body the Line of Lode. A unique mineral recently identified from Broken Hill has been named Nyholmite after one of the city's famous sons Ron Nyholm (1917–1971).

Broken Hill has been and still is a town dominated by the mining industry. The mines founded on the Broken Hill Ore Deposit – the world's richest lead-zinc ore body – have until recently provided the majority of direct employment and indirect employment in the city. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company became Australia's largest mining company, and later became part of the world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton. Before the 1940s, mining was done by hand tools with high labor usage rates and included horse-drawn carts underground. The advent of diesel powered mining equipment in the late 1940s and the move toward mechanised underground mining has resulted in less labor used per tonne of ore recovered, and the mine workforce has declined. Another factor in the shrinking of the workforce has been the consolidation of mining leases and operators from several dozen to just two main operators at present.

Source: wikipedia