TALISON GREENBUSHES PTY LTD

Mine History

Tin and Tantalum

The Greenbushes Mine is situated on one of the oldest mining tenements in Western Australia and has a long history of mining activities dating back to 1888.

Tin was first reported in 1886 in a Government geological survey and mining commenced in 1888. David Stinton was the owner of the first 400 acre mining lease at Greenbushes and co-founder of the Bunbury Tin Mining Company.

Since it was first discovered tin has been mined almost continuously in the Greenbushes area, although in recent years the lower tin prices and the emergence of tantalum as the major revenue earner have relegated tin to the position of by-product.

The presence of tantalite was noted as far back as 1893 but at that time the mineral had no value in its own right and was seen as a nuisance because it downgraded the value of tin.

Although open cut mining began to be practiced on a small scale in the 1900s much of the tin mined in the early years by small operators came from underground workings to access weathered pegmatite below the caprock.

Shafts were blasted in the surfac e rock and tunels dug out into the tin bearing alluvium. The dirt was hauled to the surface and stockpiled furing the summer months then puddled and sluiced in winter when there was an abundance of water.

Tin mining continued more or less as a cottage industry under the control of many small mining companies up to the early 60s when, for the first time, a major mining company became involved in the tin fields.

For several years a dredge was used to recover surface deposits of tin and tantalum. By 1970 alluvial resources were dwindling and it was necessary to increase exploration activity.

As a direct result of this work development of the weathered pegmatite commenced in 1974. This tin/tantalum source sustained the operation until 1992.

Small parcels of tantalite were sold occasionally, but it was not until 1944, when war had stimulated interest in the element tantalite, that the mineral began to be produced steadily for use in telecommunications, electronics and radar equipment.

Spodumene

Spodumene, the major lithium mineral, was first identified by the West Australian Government Survey in 1949 from a specimen collected in 1928 which was initially thought to be feldspar.

During the extensive diamond drilling programme for tantalum that took place between 1977 and 1980, substantial spodumene rich zones were identified.

Later drilling confirmed the existence of the richest spodumene ore body ever discovered, with resources sufficient to maintain production well into the 21st century.

However, lithium is another of the new age metals and markets had to be developed, so it wasn't until 1983 that a mineral production plant was built at Greenbushes. The full potential for lithium products has yet to be realised.