Mining in Western Australia - Timeline

Timeline

• 1839: Hydrocarbons, in the form of crude bitumen, were first recorded at the mouth of the Victoria River, near the Western Australia-Northern Territory border.
• 1892: Arthur Bailey and William Ford discover gold in Western Australia at Fly Flat near Coolgardie
• 17 June 1893: Paddy Hannan discovers gold near Kalgoorlie, sparking Western Australia's gold rush.
• Sir John Forrest, the first Premier of Western Australia, is regarded as the founding father of The Perth Mint. John saw the importance of gold in the development of Western Australia's economy, and successfully lobbied the British Government to establish a branch of the Royal Mint in Perth
• 1934: A lease was assigned over iron ore deposits at Koolan Island in Yampi Sound off the coast of the Kimberley to the Nippon Mining Company backed by the Japanese government.
• 1935-39: High gold prices encourage investment.
• 1937: Public and government outcry when Nippon Mining proposed not to use Australian labour but to send its own engineers to construct the Koolan Island mine.
• 1939-45: Labour shortages as a result of the Second World War caused many mines to cease operation, and following the war, many did not re-open.
• 1938: Commonwealth government enacts iron ore export embargo The stated reason for the embargo where doubts as to the adequacy of Australian iron ore resources for Australia's own needs. The real reason was to freeze the export of raw materials to Japan.
• 1940: Extensive survey of iron ore deposits determined only two where commercially viable, one of which being the Yampi Sound Group in Western Australia.
• 1948: Bureau of Mineral Resources (federal Department of Development) combined with the WA Department of Mines to carry out carry out systematic geological and geophysical surveys in the north west, mostly seeking free flow oil.
• 1960: Commonwealth Government lifts iron ore export embargo
• 1960s:
• 1964: Oil discovered on Barrow Island.
• 1967: Oil production on Barrow Island begins.
• 1969 - 1970: Poseidon Nickel boom
• 1977: Premier Sir Charles Court made a deal with Alcoa Australia to take a designated quota of the gas in return for permission to build a third alumina refinery at Wagerup. A big deal that looked good at the time, it left WA with an aluminium industry that looks impossible to sustain if medium to high carbon prices kick in.
• 1981: The Western Australian Government negotiated an agreement to allow development of the

large natural gas reserves on the North West Shelf.

• 1987: Global stock market crash
• 1989: First liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo exported to Japan in 1989.
• 2008: Global Financial Crisis.
• August 2009: Gorgon Consortium signs $50 billion contract with PetroChina for gas extraction from the fields around Barrow Island.