We continue our weekly series of Mount Isa's early history, in the lead-up to the 100th anniversary of the city next year.
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Last week we looked at how a new company founded in 1924 - Mount Isa Mines - brought order from the early chaos on the fields at West Leichhardt.
W. H. Corbould (Engineer and Director of Mount Isa Mines Limited) went to London in 1927 to strike a deal with Leslie Urquhart, Chairman of Russso-Asiatic Consolidated Limited.
He gained additional capital to allow diamond drilling, mine development and the erection of a power plant, mill and smelter.
The construction of Rifle Creek Dam, machine shops and dwelling houses began too.
Most of the original lease holders sold up to the new company or exchanged them for shares in the company.
Tragedy lay in wait for John Campbell Miles' pal Bill Simpson who sold up but tragically on the day of his arrival back in Brisbane he was run down by a taxi and killed.
In 1929 a new company called Mining Trust Ltd was established in London which acquired all of Russia-Asiatic's assets outside of Russia, including Mount Isa.
The new company faced an immediate challenge when a heavy influx of water at shallow depth flooded the mines, requiring new pumping equipment.
Another company called American Smelting and Refining Company, known as ASARCO, agreed to provide financing on the proviso they were appointed the mine's technical managers.
ASARCO's Julius Kruttschnitt arrived in 1930 to become the new general manager.
Under his watch the first skip of ore was hoisted in May 1931.
This was the Depression era and the world financial situation saw the lead price halve from 26 to 13 pounds a ton.
It would be 1937 before the company would ever turn a profit.
Even then the profits were ploughed back into the company and shareholders did not receive a dividend until 1947.
Copper was discovered in the fields in the late 1930s but it was not worked until wartime when it became a matter of national urgency, needed for armaments.
Under the steady hand of Julius Kruttschnitt the mine thrived and by the 1950s half of Australia's copper and a fifth of the nation's lead came from Mount Isa.
The city was well on the way to becoming Australia's economic powerhouse.
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
