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Mines/Australia

Mount Isa Mines

Mount Isa Mines, Australia. Producing, underground, mining copper, lead, zinc, silver.

Why Mount Isa Mines is famous

Mount Isa in Queensland is a long-running lead, zinc, silver and copper centre. In 2020 Glencore's Mount Isa Mines, including George Fisher and Lady Loretta, produced 633,500 t of zinc, 230 t of silver and 216,800 t of lead, according to USGS. The Mount Isa copper smelter has a stated capacity of 250,000 t a year and the lead smelter 240,000 t.1,2

Story cards

Mount Isa Mines today

Where copper is mined todayWhere lead is mined todayWhere zinc is mined todayWhere silver is mined todayMining in Australia

Where next

Places

Located inMount IsaMount Isa Mines sits at Mount Isa.1Came out ofMary KathleenFollow Mary Kathleen on to a modern operation nearby: Ernest Henry and Mount Isa - Mount Isa.3

Sources

  1. 2020-21 Minerals Yearbook, Australia (advance release) US Geological Survey
  2. data/minerals/operations.csv (modern operations table) prospectortrails.com internal data
  3. Wikidata item Q1383973 (Mary Kathleen)

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.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

Copper drill-hole columns over the Cobar Basin on a satellite map of New South WalesData storyUnder New South WalesDrill holes · New South WalesA row of tall blue flotation tank cells with walkways and pipes under a blue skyEquipmentFroth flotation and tailingsProcessing · SeparationA large grey ball mill studded with liner bolts in a long mill hallEquipmentBall mills and SAG millsProcessing · GrindingHistory of miningThe first miners: ochre, flint, copper and silver25000 BC-AD 400

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Froth flotation and tailings by Nina111955, CC BY-SA 4.0; Ball mills and SAG mills by photosmith2011, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. Pictures: Timna in de Negevwoestijn; rotspartij "de zuilen van Salomo", Poll, Willem van de / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).