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Events/Discovery · 1966

Nickel sulphides found at Kambalda

Discovery, 1966, Australia.

What happened

Western Mining Corporation explorers were told in 1964 that nickel was in rocks around Kambalda. Nickel sulphides were discovered in 1966 and production began the following year.1,2

Why it matters

It started Australia's nickel industry and a wave of exploration between Norseman and Wiluna.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. WMC discovers nickel at Kambalda

    WMC drilling found the first large nickel deposit under gossans sampled in 1954.3

  2. Kambalda West townsite established

    A second townsite was set up 4 km west of the original.3

  3. Poseidon nickel share boom

    The RBA paper says the 1974 Senate Select Committee report documented abuses during the boom and recommended changes to the regulation of financial markets.4,5

  4. Windarra and Mount Keith nickel found

    They followed Kambalda in the nickel boom.1,5

Open the full timeline

Where next

Mines

Located inKambalda nickelNickel sulphides were found in 1966 and production began the next year.6

Events

Led toWindarra and Mount Keith nickel foundWindarra and Mount Keith followed Kambalda in the nickel boom.1

Places

Came out ofNorsemanKambalda's nickel set off exploration between Norseman and Wiluna.1Located inKambaldaSee the place where this happened: Kambalda.1

Sources

  1. Nickel (Mining and Energy Western Australia exhibition) State Library of Western Australia
  2. Kambalda (item Q3192342), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Mining and Energy Western Australia: Nickel State Library of Western Australia
  4. Three Australian Asset-price Bubbles (J. Simon, 2003 conference paper) Reserve Bank of Australia
  5. Laverton (item Q1002750), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  6. Kambalda nickel history State Library of Western Australia

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Escondida Mine, Chile, NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)).