The Mining Era (1862-1907)

The mine was sold to the Yudnamutana Copper Mining Company of South Australia (an English company) in 1862 for approximately £7,000 (a staggering sum at the time). The company hired Captain Thomas Anthony, a Cornish blacksmith, to oversee both Blinman and Yudamutana Mines. He oversaw the Blinman Mine for 5 years until 1867, leaving after his wife Annie Trevithic passed away during childbirth. You can see the grave of Captain Anthony's wife and two of their children (William Morgan and Thomas Arundel) in the Blinman Cemetery. 

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Life for Blinman's residents was extraordinarily difficult. Water and firewood had to be hauled long distances, work typically left to women and older children while men worked underground. Housing in the early years consisted mainly of tents pitched dangerously close to the mine, exposing families to the fine copper dust that caused respiratory ailments described as "inflammation of the lungs."

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Many pregnancies failed in those early years, and the Blinman Cemetery tells heartbreaking stories through its weathered headstones: women who died in childbirth, men killed in mining accidents, children who succumbed to harsh conditions. Yet despite these hardships, a resilient community formed, bound by shared struggle and determination to make a life in this unforgiving landscape.

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From 1862 to 1908, the Blinman Mine operated as one of the Flinders Ranges' most significant copper producers. During these 45 years, the mine extracted approximately 10,000 tonnes of copper from over 200,000 tonnes of ore, a testament to both the wealth of the deposit and the back-breaking labour required to extract it. The mine, sometimes referred to as 'Wheal Blinman' in a nod to its original Cornish mine captain's heritage, employed a range of miners, many who had moved from the Burra mine and were mostly of Cornish, English, Welsh and Scottish descent (you can see evidence of this in the surnames present in the local cemetery). 

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The town was officially surveyed in 1864, with a hotel and post office established in the coming years. Eventually, Blinman became a proper town complete with a school, church, shops, and community facilities, a remarkable achievement in such a remote and harsh environment. 

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By 1868, the Yudamutana Mining Company had installed 2 additional furnaces for smelting at the mine, making a total of 4, and a news article at the time reports the mine was 'disgorging 10 tonnes of 97% copper every week'. The Blinman mine employed around 200 men and Blinman's population was recorded at almost 1500 by 1869, making it one of the most populous settlements in the northern Flinders Ranges.

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While the mine was very productive at this time, finding water in the harsh outback climate was always a challenge. This was until the miners dug deep enough to find groundwater in the mine itself. This was both a blessing and a curse, the presence of water meant miners couldn't extract the ore sitting below the water line, but the water could be used for the crushing and ore-dressing equipment that was due to be installed, as well as supporting the growing township. 

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In 1872 however, ore extraction slowed in both quality and quantity, the decline was so rapid and significant that the mine closed some of its furnaces, and the smelter-men were subsequently out of work and left for other mines. The mine had always struggled with profitability. One of the mine's persistent challenges was transporting copper economically from this remote location to ports for export. Initially, ore had to be hauled 200 kilometres over rough dirt tracks to Port Augusta by bullock dray and horse teams, a tyrannical journey that consumed much of the mine's potential profit. The land in-between was largely already taken as sheep-grazing land, and feed was hard to find, further challenging the bullock team's ability to transport ore. 

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The Yudamutana Mining Company essentially went into receivership at this time, and was 're-organised' as the Blinman Consolidated Copper Mining Company. A new mine captain was installed at the Blinman Mine, Captain Thomas W Cornelius, another Cornishman with extensive mining experience, both in Cornwall and Australia. He made changes to increase profitability and curb expenses, but ultimately low wage payments and worker strikes slowed operations, and many of the men employed at the mine left for greener pastures. The London company directors went quiet, the bank stopped issuing payment orders (cheques) and the mine's operations largely ceased. 

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Despite best attempts, in 1875 the mine was completely closed and the Blinman Consolidated Copper Mining Company was forced into liquidation. ​Some relief came in 1881 when the Great Northern Railway reached Parachilna, just 25 kilometers west of Blinman. The mine had a series of re-openings and re-workings over the next 5 years, taking advantage of the significantly reduced transport costs and briefly renewed the mine's viability. However, the richest ore deposits were exhausted and deeper, lower-quality ore became harder and more expensive to extract. In 1885, the global copper price dropped and the mine closed yet again, with another company going into receivership. 

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The Blinman mine changed hands again, and was acquired by the Tasmanian Copper Company in the late 1890s who started re-working the mine in the early 1900s. The majority of mining activity occurred between 1903 and 1908. The company re-fitted the mine, building dams and installing new machinery, and continued to extract ore for smelting until the falling copper price and declining sulphide ore grades forced a halt in production.

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In that stretch of time, men descended daily into the earth, working in dangerous conditions with dust, near-darkness, unstable ground, and the ever-present risk of explosions. It was, by all accounts, one of the world's most horrible jobs, yet it was also how families survived and communities were built. The Tasmanian Copper Company pulled out of its South Australian ventures in 1908, and the larger mining works were substantially shut down at this point. Small scale prospectors continued to extract small amounts of ore from the mine, travelling to smelters at Port Adelaide and Wallaroo to transform the raw ore into copper matte. ​

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Many remote mining towns completely disappeared when their mines closed. Blinman survived, but only barely. The town became a service centre for surrounding pastoral properties, its population stabilising at around 27 permanent residents where it remains today. The mine workings stood abandoned for a century, slowly being reclaimed by nature, a rusting monument to a bygone era.