Dapto Smelting Works

British capital investments in Australia In the two decades prior to the outbreak of the First World War, British investors were seeking opportunities, outside the United Kingdom. The smelter was one of a number of large investments made in Australia. Such investments, in New South Wales, included Great Cobar mine, British Australian Oil Company, Commonwealth Oil Corporation, Mount Boppy Gold Mine, and the Prince of Wales Mine. A few, such as the Sons of Gwalia mine in Western Australia, were long-lived, fabulous earners, and others like the Mount Boppy were highly remunerative. However, some were financially unsuccessful, and lost their shareholders' investment. The various ventures which controlled the short life of the Dapto Smelting Works were among the failures. Smelting site choices and 'the sulphide problem' Australian base metal mines in the 1890s faced a dilemma over where and how to smelt their ore. The dilemma could be stated in simplistic terms as, 'bring the fuel to the ore or the ore to the fuel'. Essentially, it was a choice between smelting ore at the mine site or at a port or coastal location, especially one near coal mines. John Howell, later a key figure in the Dapto Smelter was an exponent of 'bringing the ore to the fuel'. The simple ore concentration methods of the 1890s—manual 'picking' and gravity separation—resulted in large amount of gangue material in ore destined for smelting. When smelted, the gangue was separated as slag. Water jacket furnaces were capable of handling large volumes of slag; that made mine site smelting of lower-grade ore seem more viable, provided the mine had a long-enough expected life to justify the capital cost of a smelting operation and the ore was suitable. It was not until the following decade that the development of the froth flotation process, would emphatically alter the balance away from the mine site smelting. Separation using froth flotation, at the mine site, produced high-grade ore concentrates, with much less gangue content, making it more economic to 'bring the ore to the fuel', or even to sell the concentrates to an overseas smelter. Also during the early 1890s, most mines at Broken Hill were encountering massive quantities of lead-silver-zinc sulphide ore at deeper levels; that type of ore was more difficult to treat profitably, a metallurgical conundrum referred to as 'the sulphide problem'. It appeared that no one process would be a suitable solution, but instead a combination of processes might be effective. The cost of a specialised smelting plant at a mine site was not economic for smaller mines, especially if the ores needed prior 'wet treatment' using chemicals, such as sulphuric acid, and large volumes of water. Ores would be sent to specialist smelters to recover the gold content, such as Cockle Creek smelter and, once it opened, to the new Dapto Smelting Works. The Kalgoorlie gold fields of Western Australia encountered another problem, a telluride gold ore, calaverite. In the earlier stage of gold mining, the mineral had been discarded—it resembled iron pyrite, or fool's gold—and was even used for making roads. By 1896, it was recognized as being a rich gold ore (AuTe2). Treating the telluride gold ore, if it could be done profitably, would vastly increase gold production. In the 1890s, the first stage of the treatment to recover gold from telluride ores involved roasting the ore, which caused the tellurium to form tellurium dioxide leaving a crude form of gold metal behind. The gold metal could then be extracted and refined. Given the value of the gold, it was more economic to 'bring the ore to the fuel'. The treatment of pyrite gold ores also involved an initial roasting of ore. By the 1890s, wet chemical processes such as chlorination and, later, the cyanide process were becoming effective ways of extracting gold from the roasted pyrite or roasted telluride ores. Business model The concept underlying the planned operation of the Dapto Smelting Works was set out in a newspaper interview given, in September 1896, by the first general manager of the Smelting Company of Australia, John Howell. He stated that the lesson of Broken Hill had been that it was cheaper to 'bring the ore to the fuel'. Howell stated that the primary objective of the new plant was to smelt zinciferous lead sulphlde ore from Broken Hill, and to also recover its hitherto troublesome zinc content. He also clarified that, while it was expected that much of the ore would come from Broken Hill, it was envisaged that the new smelter would take ore of various base metals from other sources, allowing continuous operation of the plant and economies of scale. but that port development never materialized. Unexpectedly, the venture would be totally dependent upon rail transport. The Broken Hill lead-silver-zinc ore intended to be the mainstay of the planned production could only be shipped by sea from South Australian ports and then transshipped from a sea cargo to rail, at a relatively distant port, such as Sydney or Newcastle. At that time, there was not yet a railway line to Broken Hill from the New South Wales side and Port Kembla was not yet developed to receive cargo. Dependence on rail freight also limited the smelter's ability to treat low-grade ores, due to freight costs. After some initial difficulties, the Cockle Creek smelter operated profitably for many years. A port on Lake Illawarra was to have been developed by a company known as Illawarra Harbour and Land Corporation. Enabling legislation was passed in 1890, and land was purchased on the western foreshore of the lake. Some limited work was done on a breakwater at the entrance of the lake at Windang. in 1893, Australia entered a serious economic depression, which involved a banking crisis. By 1895, it appeared that the port scheme had stalled. However, in that year, a select committee was told that, while the original purpose had been as a port for coal, there was now a plan to erect a smelter for sulphide ores. Further, it was stated that the interests associated with the new smelter would guarantee the debentures of the land company, allowing construction of a railway to the site of the future wharves. A railway was constructed from the planned site of the 'Ocean View' Colliery to near Elizabeth Point, just to the north of Tallawarra Point, where it was intended to develop the port and a township. The railway crossed, but was also connected to, the South Coast railway, a little south of Dapto railway station, around where Fowlers Road crosses the railway line now. It opened in December 1895. In late 1898, a two select committees—one of the Legislative Council and the other of the Legislative Assembly—struggled to understand the complex ownership arrangements, the relationships between various interested parties, the lack of progress on the harbour works, and the apparent lack of funds, despite the company involved being supposedly well-capitalised to do the work. Another committee—the Public Works Committee—looking into a port for the Illawarra region, in late 1898, concluded that it would take five to seven years to complete the Illawarra Harbour port; it did not recommend delaying the decision on an alternative artificial harbour at the existing coal port of Port Kembla. The outcome was that the NSW Parliament hedged its bets, passing separate acts that both enabled the Port Kembla harbour works and granted further time to complete the Illawarra Harbour scheme. However, the dredged channel across Lake Illawarra and the wharves at Elizabeth Point were not constructed, no coal was ever shipped, and the mine and jetty scheme was abandoned in 1902. == Origins ==

Formation of the company One of the foundation directors of the Illawarra Harbour and Land Company, Mr T. A. de Wolf (d.1903), was largely responsible for the formation of a new company, Smelting Company of Australia. He became a member of its board. The formation of the company came about as the conjunction between a 'group of capitalists', known as the Camden Syndicate, and a capital raising from investors in London. James MacTear (1845–1903)—erroneously called 'James Maclean' in some reports—tested, for the Camden Syndicate, a sample of 800 tons of Broken Hill ore, provided by John Howell in his then capacity as manager of the Broken Hill Proprietary mine. MacTear reported favourably upon it, in September 1895. He had been able to extract most of its zinc content. He also reported favourably on the prospects of a smelter on Lake Illawarra. MacTear was a renowned expert in treating ores, and was president of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, London. He was also a consultant prior to the establishment of the smelter. The Camden Syndicate owned 300 acres of land—part of a 500 acre portion recently purchased from Illawarra Harbour and Land Corporation—at what is now Kanahooka, the sole rights to the 'Marsh and Storer' process in the Illawarra, rights to the Siemens electrolytic zinc process, an option over a colliery, and controlling shares in three small mines in New South Wales. The new company issued £500,000 of capital as £1 shares, but paid £300,000—made up of 250,000 fully-paid shares and £50,000 in cash—for the assets provided by the Camden Syndicate. The remaining 250,000 shares were opened for public subscription in London, and reportedly were 'greedily taken by the public'. That arrangement gave the syndicate an effective controlling interest in the new company and the right to appoint at least two of the seven member board. Since the £50,000 cash payment to the Camden Syndicate came from the public offering, the new company had £200,000 to both fund the smelter construction and provide its initial working capital. However, including mines, albeit small ones, within the new company's assets—at variance with a publicly-stated business model, based solely on smelting and providing that service to mines— The promoters T.A. De Wolf Thomas Andrew De Wolf (d.1903) was living at 'Benare', in Thornton St, Darling Point in September 1888, when his 25-year old wife, Blanche Frances, committed suicide by drowning. He described his occupation as being a merchant. In February 1892, he had successfully defended a charge of conspiracy to defraud, brought by Lismore Municipal Council, involving a gasworks that de Wolf and others had built. He was a member of the Camden Syndicate. Until at least 1893, he was the first managing director of the Illawarra Harbour and Land Corporation. He lived in London for four years prior to 1898, He died unexpectedly in April 1903. The Camden Syndicate The members of the Camden Syndicate included Andrew Armstrong (c.1842–1921)—a Sydney-based lobbyist, land investor, and manager of land development ventures, such as the one associated with the suspension bridge at Northbridge—Benjamin Josman Fink (1847–1909)—a financier and land speculator, from Melbourne—an experienced and well-known mine manager and smelting expert, with financial interests in various mines—and Thomas Andrew de Wolf (d. 1903). which also sold 2,090 acres of land into another company flotation, that of Illawarra Harbour and Land Corporation. The involvement of these men made the land dealings, leading up to the flotation of the Smelting Company of Australia, what are now known as related party transactions. Further, the apparent market value of the land had been inflated, as it was sold between the various related entities. The extent of the relationship between the various entities was revealed in evidence given during select committee hearings in late 1898. The Syndicate then immediately reformed as a new entity, Camden Exploration Company, with John Howell as its mining adviser. However, its principal investment was in the shares—inherited from the Camden Syndicate—that it held in the Smelting Company of Australia. == Smelting Company of Australia (1897–1902) ==

Directors London board of directors The London-based board of the Smelting Company of Australia had as its chairman, William Keswick. The other directors were, Sir John Fowler (died 1898), John Fleming, Walter Harper, Mr Inglis, Mr Manby, Walter Saville, Arthur Wilson, and T.A. de Wolf. The smelting works Site and layout The site was on part of the land known as the Lakelands Estate, which was originally owned by the Illawarra Harbour and Land Company. The portion allocated to the smelter was near Kanahooka Point and had frontage to Mullet Creek, which could be used as a source of cooling water. The line to the smelter then crossed Brooks Creek, curving to enter what is now Webb Park at its western end, then passing just to the south of what are now the southern boundaries of allotments adjoining the park. It then passed through what is now a curving, narrow strip of land, between Webb Park and a point nearby the intersection of Kanahooka Road and Brooks Terrace, after which it crossed Kanahooka Road and entered the plant. A locomotive named 'Murrumbidgee' operated over the private railway between Dapto and the smelting works. 'Murrumbidgee' had been owned by the contractor Robert Amos (c.1832–1905), who had used it on various railway construction projects since at latest 1879. It very likely had been used in construction of the railways leading from the South Coast line to the smelter, and then presumably either rented or bought by the smelting works. Construction of the smelting works Construction began in January 1896. and work progressed quickly. Production began in September 1897. The land was adjacent to the smelting works on the southern side of Kanahooka Road; it was styled as "Illawarra City". A report of the auction held on 15 March 1897, to sell the lots was that, "The attendance was good, but bidding was anything but spirited". Only twenty-four lots were reported as being sold. It seems that most of the workers preferred to reside further away from the smelter, in nearby Dapto, which became something of a boom town due to the smelter. but in line with the business model described by John Howell, the plant also was intended to be able to treat oxide and sulphide ores of various types, theoretically from any mine. were placed regularly. The smelter was reliant upon obtaining supplies of ore to smelt. Under the business model used, the smelter bought the ore and sold the smelted products. A cheque, in full settlement of the ore purchase, would be made available to the seller, within 30 days. The smelter sought arrangements to smelt ore from mines, on a long-term arrangement, but over its life seemed to have difficulty securing such long-term commitments. Sales staff, such as a Mr Brown who visited Townsville in 1898, toured the country to identify and sign up new sellers. Many mines of the time sent bulk samples to the smelter, and so obtained a quotable reference value for the recoverable metallic content of their ores, whether or not those mines continued to use the smelter subsequently. File:Smelting Co. of Australia - sample house (1900) (Sydney Mail, 10 Nov 1900, p1110).jpg|Sample house (1900) File:Smelting Company of Australia, Looking north, General Offices, Assay Building, and Store (The Sydney Mail, 5 Jun 1897, p1189).jpg|Left to right, Offices, assay building, and store (1897) File:Smelting Company of Australia, In the laboratory (The Sydney Mail, 5 Jun 1897, p1189).jpg|Inside the laboratory (1897) Roasting and 'slagging' (fusing) furnaces The roasting plant comprised three Gates crushers, two Kron (or Krone) rolls, with trammels and elevator for handling the crushed ore, and three revolving roasting furnaces. Slag pots were provided to be used under abnormal conditions. The slag ended up in a slag dump at the north-east edge of the plant. The refinery contained reverberatory furnaces, large steel vessels known as 'kettles', and cupelling furnaces. The crude lead-silver bullion produced by the water jacket furnaces was 'softened' in a reverberatory furnace to remove other content such as antimony, tin and copper. The molten metal was run into large steel vessels known as 'kettles'—holding around 20 tons of molten metal—which were heated by coal fires. tower and the shorter is the Glover Tower. There were thirty pyrite burners, which delivered sulphur fumes to four lead-lined chambers, 120 feet by 20 feet by 19 feet, where a reaction took place. There were two lead-lined wooden towers—a Gay Lussac tower, Zinc oxide plant Originally, it had been planned to then recover the zinc content, from the leachate solution, using the Siemens and Halske electrolytic zinc process. However, it seems that an electrolytic refinery was never built. Instead the works produced zinc oxide from the leachate solution, referred to as 'liquor'. The remnant roasted ore, now devoid of its zinc content was smelted. The process used was the patented Marsh-Storer process. Magnesite, imported from Greece, was added to the leachate solution in these vats, as a precipitating agent. After the insoluble zinc salt precipitated, the remnant was a solution of magnesium sulphate ('Epsom salt'). The precipitated zinc oxide then passed to filter presses for separating out the remaining liquid, and then was dried. and Mount Drysdale, north of Cobar. The mines of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia were sources of telluride ore. Treatment of the ores involved first roasting the ore. For pyrite ore the roasting was to drive off the sulphur. For telluride ore, the roasting was to decompose the telluride compounds (e.g. AuTe2), releasing the gold and causing the tellurium to become tellurium dioxide. Fuels The smelter required coke for its water-jacket furnaces—particularly for reducing lead-oxide produced by roasting—and coal to supply its boilers, reverberatory furnaces, and for process heating. Coke came from the Australian Coke Company, which was near where the Prices Highway crossed the railway from Mt Kembla. This plant was later relocated to Corrimal, becoming the Corrimal Coke Ovens. In the next month, July 1900, the works treated 4,693 tons of ore—2,580 tons being Broken Hill silver-lead ore—producing 1,017 tons of bullion and matte, containing 4,191 ounces of gold, 88,281 ounces of silver, 1,016 tons of lead, and 110 tons of copper, showing an upward trend in production. Howell was a member of the Camden Syndicate and subsequently became the first managing director of Smelting Company of Australia, during the years that the Dapto smelting works were designed and constructed, and—as a member of the Camden Syndicate—he had a major influence on it and its business model. He apparently failed to foresee the risk and adverse consequences of the Illawarra Harbour port scheme not proceeding; as late as February 1898, he was still stating—at least publicly—an expectation that the deepening of the new harbour would be completed within twelve months. Howell resigned, in May 1898, to pursue his private mining interests, but remained a director. Among the other mining ventures in which he was involved, he established and managed the Conrad mine, The mining village that grew up near that mine was named Howell, after him.—a copper-mining village that is now a ghost town, four miles south-west of Clermont, Queensland—where his father managed a copper mine. His own career began in Broken Hill, as an assayer, in 1888. He was later metallurgist of the British Broken Hill mine, subsequently an assistant manager at the Broken Hill Proprietary mine, and eventually was in charge of its eighteen smelting furnaces. In 1895, he married John Howell's younger daughter. He later was, briefly, general manager of Smelting Company of Australia, from May 1898, Although he managed various other mining and smelting ventures thereafter, he is best known for his involvement with mining and smelting around Cobar. From 1901, he was mine manager of the Great Cobar mine, and later was its general manager, between 1905 He was later on the board of New Occidental Gold Mining Company Limited, operator of the New Occidental Mine at Wrightville.Ernest Ludwig Adolph Weinberg (1855–1925) was a German born and trained metallurgist. Weinberg had been the managing director of Queensland Smelting Company, which ran a smelter at Aldershot, near Maryborough, Queensland. Before that he had been a manager at Anaconda Copper, in the United States He became general manager of Smelting Company of Australia, in June 1898. While Weinberg seems to have operated the Dapto Smelting Works competently, his management of the company, Smelting Company of Australia, is questionable. In August 1900, shareholders complained that they had not seen any accounts or reports of operations, since 1898. The company reportedly reduced its margins during his management in order to obtain sufficient ore, almost certainly a factor in the financial difficulties in 1901. Although Weinberg was not personally involved, corrupt behavior of company employees, involving fraudulent sampling, was uncovered in 1900. Thousands of pounds in excessive payments for purchases of gold ore were made Weinberg then become general manager and chief metallurgist of Chillagoe Railway and Mining Company. He later resigned from that post, but remained involved with the Chillagoe smelters, as a consultant. He died in New York in 1925. Phillip Sidney Morse (1859–1953), an American, briefly managed the smelter, after the Weinberg's departure. After graduating in 1883 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he had worked in smelting in the American West, before coming to Australia. From September 1902 until 1914, Morse was manager of Cockle Creek Smelter, and during that time important modifications and extensions to that rival plant were made. He then returned to America. appointed by the works' new owner, Smelting and Refining Company of Australia. Difficulties Losses on gold and sampling conspiracy trial (1900–1901) It was alleged that two employees working the sampling house had 'salted'—fraudulently added gold to improve the assay result—samples of gold ore, over a lengthy period. The payment made for the bulk ore depended upon the assay result. The two employees, Alfred Faulder and James Harvey, and the two men who consigned the ore to Dapto, Thomas Mooney and George Axam, were committed to trial on changes of conspiracy to defraud, in October 1900. An analysis revealed an apparent amount of gold 'lost' of 2,848 ounces, by which time Axam had been paid for 3,630 ounces. Gold was £4 to the ounce at the time. The works assayed the slags from each of its furnaces, twice every 24 hours, and therefore had a good handle on the amount of gold going into the slag, which was subsequently mainly recovered, by reprocessing. Evidence was given that the two employees, Faulder and Harvey, seemed to be living beyond their means, and that Harvey, using an alias, had sold a parcel of very rich gold ore, alleged to have been the company's property, to the Cockle Creek smelter for £280.—that had produced gold, but historically at grades significantly less than the values of the samples in question. The mine owner stated the prices Mooney paid; 7 shillings per ton for 30 tons of ore already lying on the surface, and £2 10s. per ton for the another 100 tons extracted from the mine to fill Mooney's order. Two assayers from the smelter gave evidence of the assay values of specific numbered samples of the ore; all assays showed a remarkably high gold content. A closely controlled resampling of a parcel of Axam's ore, carried out by the company in the absence of Faulder and Harvey, resulted in an assay of just 5 dwt of gold per ton, far less than the earlier ones of the same ore that ranged as high as 6 oz 6 dwt and 3 grains. How the gold was introduced into the samples was unknown—the defence called several witnesses who stated that they did not see the Harvey, Faulder, or anyone else 'salting' the samples The works were processing a lot of very rich Western Australian telluride gold ore at the time, and bags of this very rich ore were later found hidden in a swamp to the west of the works. Axam later sued the company, for £500 in damages, unsuccessfully. until it closed in September 1900. although there was no northern railway connection at that time. When it opened, the smelter had an association with the Junction Mine at Broken Hill, a mine later associated with the Dapto Smelting Works. One of the directors of the Dry Creek smelter's operator, Smelting Company of Australia, was John Cash Neild; no longer needed to send their ores to be treated in 'custom smelters' such as Dapto Smelting Works. From around 1901, instead of being roasted, telluride gold ores could be treated by an enhanced cyanide process, known as the Diehl process after its inventor, Ludwig Diehl. Smelting of sulphide ores from Broken Hill still left a small but significant amount of metal lost with the slag. During the first decade of the 20th Century, froth flotation was developed and refined, largely at Broken Hill. That wet separation process, produced high-grade ore concentrates, almost devoid of gangue material and separated by mineral type, that did not necessarily suit the then existing smelting techniques. Size, capacity, and location Despite its impressive appearance, the plant had a relatively low smelting capacity. Even if there had always been sufficient ore to smelt, the plant would struggle to operate profitably, especially if the ore being treated was of a lower grade. Bringing its ore from the wharves in Sydney by rail put the smelter at a disadvantage, particularly regarding the smelting of lower grade ores. Sulphuric acid plant The company had built a large and expensive sulphuric acid plant. For whatever reason, this plant was 'not long in operation'. In 1903, the sulphuric acid plant was described as a 'veritable white elephant'. == Change of ownership (mid 1900 - mid 1902) ==

Change of control (1900) In mid-1900, control of the Smelting Company of Australia passed to an entity known as Smelting and Harbour Syndicate Limited. On 29 June 1900, an extraordinary meeting of shareholders of the Smelting Company of Australia was held in London. A resolution was moved to approve an earlier provisional agreement, which gave the Smelting and Harbor Syndicate, Limited the option of "acquiring the good will and the greater part of the assets of the company". At the meeting to approve the option, one shareholder complained that he had received no report of the state of operations since 1898. Another shareholder complained that he had not received a notice of the meeting, which might explain the low attendance. The motion was carried 29 to 6. and to amalgamate those with its parent company, Consolidated Nickel Mines. The vendors, Smelting and Harbor Syndicate Limited, received the 150,000 7% preference shares, as payment for the assets. The new firm also assumed the liabilities of the old one, totalling £107,640, including £103,036 owed to Dalgety & Co. Limited. The sale also included the controlling interest in 'Webb's mine'. The management of the new company arrived to take over operations, during May 1902. The new company's board did not include any of the Camden Syndicate members. The London-based directors were; Sir Thomas Salter Pyne (1860–1921)—Chairman of the board and a former Chief Engineer of Afghanistan while working for the Amir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman Khan, from 1884 to 1899—Mr. T. F. Read—a director of Taropaca Waterworks Company, operator of a desalination plant in Taropaca, Chile, and a company associated with John Thomas North, and his nitrates empire—and Mr. Reginald Ward—a merchant, of Ward, Armstrong & Co., The fourth director was the company's 'local advisor', former Western Australian politician and recently retired, Agent-General for Western Australia, Sir Edward Horne Wittenoom (1854 – 1936). Prior to being Agent-General for Western Australia in London, Wittenoom had aroused controversy; his name had appeared as a director on the prospectus of Western Australian Smelting Company, while he was still Western Australia's Minister for Mines. Although there was no overt involvement by the Camden Syndicate, directors of the old company were there in the background. The following commentary, from November 1901, opines that the new company was not set up on a sound financial basis, suggesting yet again vested interests were being served, by an inflated valuation of new company with an excessive allowance for goodwill: "The present company, that has just been formed to take over the business, is called the Smelting & Refining Company of Australia, Limited. It has been formed by Mr. Salisbury-Jones and his friends, but many of the shareholders and directors of the old company are supporting him by underwriting shares. The capital is £650,000 in 150,000 preference shares of £1 each and 500,000 ordinary shares of £1 each, besides which there is £100,000 in debentures. The preference shares are now being offered for subscription in London, and of these two-thirds have already been underwritten. The terms of purchase are somewhat complicated, owing to the old company having debentures and other debts to wipe off. The new debentures go towards wiping out the old ones, but there are many debts that have to be paid off in cash, so that there will be very little capital left to start actual operations on and to buy ores with. It is a remarkable fact that “good will” is represented in the purchase price to the extent of £284,750. An unsuccessful company that has landed in debt does not usually charge for good will. " The fate of the original buyer of its assets, Smelting and Harbour Syndicate Limited, appears to be unrecorded, but coincidentally, the Illawarra Harbour port scheme was abandoned around the same time in 1902. == Smelting and Refining Company of Australia (1902–1905) ==

Changes New management The new general manager was another American, W.L Hoyt. The new company engaged A.A.Blow as its consultant. W.L. Hoyt W.L. Hoyt had been superintendent of the Ross Mining & Milling Company's, Silverton Smelters, in Colorado, He remained manager of the Dapto works from May 1902 until the company ceased operations. Subsequently, from July 1907, he was general manager of the Tasmanian Copper Mining Company, in South Australia. At the time, that venture was erecting a custom smelter at Leigh Creek, best known for coal mining, but with copper mines nearby. By the end of October 1908, that smelter and its spur line were dormant. A. A. Blow Albert Allmond Blow, was manager and later owner of the Silver Cord Mining Company in Leadville, Colorado. It had been his idea to build the Yak Tunnel. The Yak Tunnel served both to provide drainage for the deep mines and as underground haulage to transport ore from multiple mines to a mill near near the mouth of the tunnel. The tunnel's earlier name was the Blow Tunnel. He was a wealthy man and consulting mining engineer, and was married to Jennie Goodell Blow (1860–1935). Blow visited the Dapto Smelting Works, at least twice, reportedly staying for three or four months around October 1903. During that long visit he gave an interview to the press, presenting a positive outlook for the smelter. An artificial harbour—the Outer Harbour—was by then being constructed progressively, at Port Kembla. The southern breakwater was constructed first. By late 1902, it already extended to 1000 feet and its end was in 26 feet deep water. Planned expansion With more ore arriving and a lift in production during 1902, the directors envisaged a substantial expansion of operations, The union was known as the Dapto Smelters' and Refiners' Union. It won an increase of 6d. per day for its members in September 1903. Another change of control In May 1903, there was another change of control. A circular had been issued which advised shareholders that: "''the directors have received from gentlemen, whose business connections enable them to control large ore supplies in Australasia, and greatly to extend the company's business, an offer to guarantee for a term of years the payment to the company (half yearly and in advance) of a sum equal to the, interest on the company's debentures, 7 per cent, per annum on its preference shares, and 20 per, cent. per annum on its ordinary shares for the time being issued; also to find all capital certified by the consulting engineer as immediately required for improvements and extensions of the company's works, in consideration of their taking four-fifths of the company's net profits, less four-fifths of any additional dividend to which the preference shareholders may be entitled under the articles of association''" Later, during 1905, the circular and its context would become the subject of a court case over alleged misrepresentation by two directors. One report, in September 1903, claimed—almost certainly without factual foundation—that "The Rothchilds, of London, are now the controlling force behind the Company" Enhancements to smelter The nickel ore of New Caledonia contained more iron than nickel, and the key to smelting it was to obtain an iron-nickel matte, while removing most of the silica and some of the iron with the slag. To form the slag, a sulphur-compound flux would be added; it was planned to use gypsum (calcium sulphate) from South Australia, as that flux. The calcium sulphate would react with carbon (coke) in the furnace to form calcium sulphide, with the sulphide compound then reacting with the iron and nickel to form an iron-nickel matte, and the calcium with the silica to form calcium silicate slag. By controlling the amount of gypsum, some of the iron would also form part of the slag, as iron silicate. In October 1903, the company's consultant A.A. Blow confirmed that construction was well advanced on a 250 ton/day nickel smelter. The exclusive right use of the wharf was won, in 1906, by the North Bulli Company, after a tender process. The ore shipments for Dapto would need to be unloaded in Sydney. In December 1904, the first cargo of nickel ore arrived at Dapto. The ship, Saint Louis, loaded at Voh, in New Caledonia, and discharged the ore at Pyrmont, in Sydney, from where it was railed to the smelter. The consignment consisted of 1,700 or 1,800 tons of ore. A report in January 1905, said that operations to smelt the nickel ore would not commence until 10,000 tons had accumulated at the works. Financial difficulties (1904–1905) While the company pressed ahead with its new nickel ore smelter, its remaining business declined; incoming ore shipments had fallen to the extent that only one furnace was working. The company would need to raise more money to pay its existing debts and complete the nickel plant. Directors proposed to raise £100,000, from shareholders, by an issue of debentures, and expressed confidence that the additional money would be sufficient for the plant to make satisfactory profits. However, it was already too late. == Closure of smelter at Dapto ==

The works closed, during March 1905, the reported immediate trigger was a lack of ore from Western Australia, but the company's perilous financial position was also highly significant. The new nickel smelter was still under construction when the works closed. At the time, some thought the closure was temporary, but the Dapto Smelting Works would never reopen. == Aftermath ==

Existing commitments On 6 March 1905, it was reported that the contract to smelt concentrates from the Junction Mine at Broken Hill had been cancelled, and awarded instead to a German smelter. A number of small mines in New South Wales, which had been clients of the smelter, laid off miners because they become unprofitable due to its closing. Impact on Dapto The closing of the smelter in 1905 had an immediate impact on the township of Dapto, which had become something of a boom town while the smelter operated. Many houses were demolished. By around 1918, Dapto had become what was described later as a 'sleepy hamlet'. Its fortunes only began to rise again later, with the opening of the Wongawilli Colliery. Court case The end of the Smelting and Refining Company of Australia, in 1905, led to a case before the Kings Bench Division, in London. Two shareholders sought to recover damages, from two directors, for alleged misrepresentation. The case revealed "a long and intricate story of cornpany dealings." It involved accusations that directors had acted in their own interests rather than those of shareholders, that "untrue, false, and fraudulent statements were made", and also "a conspiracy to defraud people, including the shareholders, by the statements made". The specific allegations related to a circular sent out by the defendants, on 2 May 1903, and a speech made by one defendant with the alleged concurrence of the other. In late 1905, a new company, Australian Smelting Company, was formed to take an option over the assets of Smelting and Refining Company of Australia. In May 1906, some debenture holders sought an injunction to stop the sale, but were unsuccessful. However, for whatever reason, the previous plan to smelt Consolidated Nickel Mines's ore, from New Caledonia, was never achieved. Zinc Corporation had been formed to process accumulated tailings, from the Broken Hill mines, which still contained significant amounts of lead, silver and especially zinc. During 1906, it seemed that there was a tentative agreement to smelt the resulting concentrates, at a new smelter at Port Kembla, to be operated by Australian Smelting Company. In January 1907, Zinc Corporation began to produce concentrates, at Broken Hill, reprocessing around 500 tons of tailings per day. It was envisaged, by that time, that the smelting of those concentrates would be done overseas. In March 1907, Australian Smelting Company decided upon a capital reconstruction involving debentures. Relocation to Port Kembla The new company intended to relocate the idle operations to a seaport. During early 1906, they were considering either Newcastle, Port Kembla, or Port Pirie as the site for their smelter. By August 1906, they had settled upon Port Kembla, and had confirmed that the Dapto works were to be abandoned. Australian Smelting Company bought 50 acres of Crown land, at Port Kembla, and in January 1907, commenced work, to transfer some plant from the idle Dapto site to there. The NSW Government tendered the work for construction of a new wharf at Port Kembla—the one known as the No.4 Low Level Wharf—to be used by the company and the adjacent Electrolytic Refining and Smelting Company of Australia Limited (ER&S). Substantial works were carried out at Port Kembla, including construction a railway embankment and railway to near the site of the future wharf, transfer of most of the buildings from Dapto to Port Kembla, and installation of two steam boilers. It was expected that smelting operations would commence around the end of 1907. The company's new office building and some houses that it owned, at Port Kembla, were then rented by Electrolytic Refining and Smelting (ER&S), and some office staff transferred to that company. On an adjacent site, ER&S's copper smelter and refinery commenced production in the same year. Last attempt to save the venture In January 1908, it was the still new Australian Smelting Corporation that resolved to enter voluntary liquidation and begin yet another capital reconstruction. However, that proposed capital reconstruction met with little enthusiasm from investors; By then the plan for an operation at Port Kembla had been stopped by a lack of funds. With the capital reconstruction agreements in place, an option to buy the assets, with a six-months term, was granted to the Broken Hill South and North Broken Hill companies. However, in May 1909, they decided not to take up the option. Instead, those companies used existing smelters at Port Pirie. Subsequently, the two companies, with others from Broken Hill, formed Broken Hill Associated Smelters, which took over and expanded the smelters at Port Pirie. Eventually, the Port Pirie smelters would become, for many years, the largest lead smelters in the world, and cause very significant heavy metals contamination of the nearby environment. The Australian Smelting Corporation (In Liquidation) was finally struck from the companies register, in February 1939. Abandoned sites Following the cessation of the relocation work at Port Kembla, there were two abandoned smelter sites—the partially-demolished one near Dapto and the partially-completed one at Port Kembla—but neither was suitable for operation. The Port Kembla site was left in a state of abandonment for some years, protected only by a watchman, allowing equipment and structures there to deteriorate badly, due the salty air and exposure to the elements. However, no asset sale occurred, at that time. In March 1912, a shed at the Port Kembla site—containing valuable machinery removed from the old smelter at Dapto—was destroyed in a fire, resulting in a £3,000 loss. The fire was caused by three six year old boys 'playing with matches'. In late October 1913, reportedly, forty tons of equipment arrived by ship from Melbourne, consigned to the Australian Smelting Corporation, and it appeared that perhaps work on the smelter site would soon recommence. In 1916, the company was in liquidation, and its former site at Port Kembla was in other hands. From 1916, the Australian Smelting Company's site at Port Kembla, was occupied by Metal Manufactures, now known as MM Kembla. During 1912, some of the accumulation of slag at the Dapto smelter site was removed and shipped by rail to Sydney, where it was reportedly used as aggregate in concrete. Some dismantling of old structures occurred during 1913. In early 1919, the Dapto smelter site and its remaining buildings were up for sale by tender. The remaining machinery there was sold in August 1919, and it was planned to remove it soon thereafter. The land subsequently became a dairy farm. In 1952, Wollongong Council used some of the slag for roadworks on Avondale Road. The office and laboratory buildings of the Dapto smelter remained standing for many years. The office building became a private residence on the dairy farm and the laboratory was used for storage. Both buildings were later incorporated into a larger building and became the 'Lake View' restaurant, which was still operating in 1988. The remains of these buildings were demolished in 1993. The slag dump remained exposed, until at least 2011. == Remnants ==

Much of the site of the old Dapto smelter site at Kanahooka has been redeveloped for housing. The site needed remedial work to remove remnant heavy metals contamination. The work obliterated many vestigial traces of the old smelter, which had been evident in aerial photographs from as late as 1988. The north-western part of the site was redeveloped first, during the 1990s, as Forest Grove estate. There are in total 26 items described as 'heritage elements'. The naming of two streets, Wall Lane and The Arches, is after the remnants located there. The naming of Brooks Terrace, Nickel Lane and Saltwater Circuit reflects aspects of the former smelter. The former slag dump is covered by a mound and has been left as open space. The channel used for saltwater for cooling still runs to nearby Mullet Creek. A curving, narrow strip of land, between Webb Park and a point nearby the intersection of Kanahooka Road and Brooks Terrace, is a part of the former route of the railway to the smelting works. Aside from these remnants and photographs, there is nothing left of the short-lived Dapto Smelting Works. == References ==