The British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company (BTCIC) was an iron mining and smelting company that operated from 1874 to 1878 in Northern Tasmania, Australia. It was formed by floating the operations of a private company, the Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company that operated between 1871 and 1874.
This venture was the largest of the four that smelted iron from local iron ore in Tasmania during the 1870s. Despite its name, the company was mainly owned by shareholders from the colonies of Victoria and Tasmania, and it used coke rather than charcoal.
The company's operations included an iron ore mine near Anderson's Creek and a railway from the mine to its blast furnace and port near Redbill Point—now part of modern-day Beauty Point—on the West Arm of the Tamar River estuary in Northern Tasmania. Its blast furnace—the largest and most modern in Australia for its time—produced pig-iron June 1876 to August 1877.
Both well-capitalised and well-managed, the BTCIC used well-designed processes and equipment. However, the venture failed, mainly because the chromium content of its iron ore reached levels that resulted in pig-iron of an unsaleable quality. Consequently, planned expansion—such as steel-making—was never commenced.
After the BTCIC was wound up in 1878, the assets were sold to the 'Purchase Company'; the new company tried to overcome the problem of high chromium content, but it eventually broke up and sold the assets at auctions held in June 1883 and February 1885.
There is very little remaining now of this relatively large—for its time—mining and smelting operation. The two company towns, Port Lempriere (the port township and the site of the blast furnace) and Leonardsborough (near the mine site) no longer exist.
Historical context
Soon after the first settlement in Northern Tasmania, at York Town in 1804, colonial settlers found that there were extensive deposits of iron ore in the hills to the west of the Tamar estuary. Interest in the area was aroused again by the report in 1866 of the Government Geologist, Charles Gould.
There was an increase in pig-iron prices in the early 1870s, which led to the formation of a number of colonial era iron-making ventures in Australia. The price of imported pig-iron increased, from £4 10s per ton in 1870 to £9 per ton in 1873 greatly advantaging locally manufactured iron. However, this high price did not last long, as iron-making capacity increased and pig-iron was once again imported cheaply as ballast in sailing ships returning from England to Australia.
By 1876–1877, pig iron was being made in both New South Wales—traditionally a 'free-trade' colony—and in Victoria, a 'protectionist' colony. Pig-iron production in Australia was to cease more or less completely after June 1884, when the Lal Lal furnace was extinguished—largely due to import competition—and did not resume until May 1907, when Australia's first modern blast furnace entered production at Lithgow.
The BTCIC was the largest of four ventures that smelted iron from local iron ore in Tasmania during the 1870s; the others were the Ilfracombe Iron Company, the Tamar Hematite Iron Company— both nearby on the Tamar estuary—and the Derwent Iron Company. A fifth venture, the Swedish Charcoal Iron Company never went beyond issuing a prospectus.
Iron ore deposits
The iron ore deposits were two hills lying near on the western side of Anderson's Creek, subsequently called Mt. Vulcan and Scott's Hill. These both lay on Crown land. The iron ore had been discovered by Colonel William Paterson, soon after the first European settlement in Northern Tasmania at nearby York Town. The two hills had been singled out as potential mining sites, by Charles Gould in his report of 1866. The area between the hills was also covered in loose iron ore. Mt Vulcan would be the main source of the company's quarried iron ore.
Characteristics
Geology
The iron ore deposit consisted of hematite closest to the surface, with magnetite below that, over an underlying bed of serpentine. A deep bore encountered more magnetite below the serpentine and it seems that there were alternating bands of iron ore and serpentine. The hematite probably had formed from the weathering of the upper strata of magnetite.
Iron content
During the early 1870s, assaying of Mt Vulcan iron ore was carried out by eight separate analysts; two in Melbourne, five in England and one in Scotland. The iron content identified in the various assays ranged between 49.5% and 71.8%, with a cluster of results around 60%. Compared with contemporary English iron ore resources, the deposit was a rich one.