Burra, South Australia

Burra is a city in the Australian state of South Australia. The place is situated about 150 km north of Adelaide on the Barrier Highway. Burra achieved fame through the copper mining industry and was one of the first mining centers in Australia.

History

In 1845, resident shepherd discovered two copper deposits in the area of the later city. In order to obtain the rights to the deposits, the country had to be purchased by the government worth 20,000 pounds. There were two parties consisting of businessmen from Adelaide. The two parties purchased the land by lot and it was decided who got which occurrence. Known as the " Nobs " association of owners of capital received the lot for the occurrence Princess Royal south of the later city. However, this deposit contained little ore and the attack was in 1951 reinstated. The second party, the South Australian Mining Association (known as the " snobs " ), consisting of traders from Adelaide, the lot for the Monster Mine received.

The underground mining began in September 1845. The mine was a month later renamed the Burra Burra Mine after a local river. The hand-picked ore was first transported on carts to Port Adelaide and then shipped to Wales, where it finally copper was melted. In the following years the ore was transported to Kapunda, the nearest railway connection. In 1849, smelters were built in order to produce copper metal site can in Burra. The high water table caused great problems and early 1850s with powerful pumps were installed to keep the pits dry. In the years also was compounded by the gold rush in Victoria added, which withdrew many workers from Burra.

In the early days of mining Burra sometimes had more than 5,000 inhabitants. The various population groups ( miners from Cornwall, Scotland, Wales and England) all had their own respective villages which coalesced into Burra.

In 1867 it was decided to recover the deposit open pit in order to open up niedriggradigeres copper can. Many plants on the deposit were dismantled as well as the smelters to make room for the open pit. The smelting of ores was then in Port Adelaide. Began in 1870 the open pit operation, but by 1875 the recovery in civil engineering was taken on deeper soles again. 1877 had to be adjusted due to the mining of the high costs for water drainage and the low price of copper. By 1877 about 700,000 tons of ore have been promoted and gained from 50,000 tonnes of copper.

In 1961 the Department for Mines of the Government of South Australia began with studies on the deposit, followed by Mines Exploration Ltd.. and Samin Ltd. In 1971, mining was resumed in open pit mining. 1978 bought the Adelaide & Fertilizers Ltd Walleroo. the deposit and put the mining continued until 1981. In this second phase, two million tons of ore have been promoted and produced 40,000 tons of copper. Currently, around Burra by the Phoenix Copper Ltd.. explores for copper and gold.

1930 was discovered 15 km east of Burra Mongolata the gold field. This produced to date more than 11,000 ounces of gold from 7,500 tons of ore Active mining licenses for the field are still being held by small companies.

Today Burra lives mainly from tourism. The well-preserved buildings from the 19th century and the legacy of the mining industry including old mine and the museum are the attractions of the city.

Geology

The ore bodies of Burra are in Neoproterozoic sediments of the so-called Adelaidean. The subunit, which contains the ore bodies, was named after the deposit Burra Group. It is all about quartzites and dolomites. The ore body itself is of relatively small extent, but it contains by supergene enrichment ore grades of up to 20 wt % copper. Ore minerals in this zone are mainly malachite and azurite. The underneath sulphidische mineralization contains far lower copper levels.