434 North Ltd (NBHH) See current profiles on ERA and North Ltd, also the ERA, Ranger, Peko Wallsend and EZ dossiers.
Formerly North Broken Hill Ltd, it should not be confused with NBHC/New Broken Hill Consolidated, which is a subsidiary - through AM&S - of CRA. In 1988, after it merged with Peko-Wallsend Ltd, it was renamed North Broken Hill Peko Ltd (6).
It is one of Australia's "historic" mining companies, whose original mine at North, in the Broken Hill mining region of New South Wales, earned it its title and, still, a large proportion of its income (1). Having celebrated its centenary in 1983, the company's interests are largely in JVs for minerals throughout Australia (2), and in forest products (through Associated Pulp and Paper Mills) (3).
Its JV partners include (or have included) Aquitaine, Kennecott, Noranda, CRA, and WMC (1), but its heart still lies in the silver-lead-zinc lodes of Broken Hill, despite recent profit losses due to prolonged industrial action (4). Lead-silver concentrate is sold to Broken Hill Associated Smelters (in which it owns 30%) and zinc concentrate to EZ industries (30% of which it purchased in 1983, and full control of which it obtained in 1984) (5). Thereby NBHH came to effectively own 30.96% of ERA and the Ranger Mine, and later 65.1% (6).
In 1988, the year of the Peko Wallsend merger, North also merged its zinc-lead-silver mining, smelting and international activities with those of CRA, to form Pasminco (see CRA). The same year, it sold its coal, mineral sands and metal recycling interests to Elders Resources NZFP, as well as 60% of the Mt Morgan gold project.
Reorganised into three divisions - Geopeko (exploration), Metalliferous Mining Division, and a mining sector - North Broken Hill's current main interests are in:
the Tennant Creek (Northern Territory) mines, producing gold, copper and bismuth;
the Dolphin scheelite mine in Tasmania, and a mineral sands venture in the same area;
the Peak Hill JV (50%) in Western Australia (WA);
the Parkes gold-copper project in New South Wales;
the Collingwood tin project (50%) in Queensland;
the Robe River iron ore mine in WA (with partners Mitsui, Nippon Steel, and Sumitomo) - Australia's third largest producer;
the Golden Valley JV (50%) at Kallowna which began heap-leaching gold in mid-1989. It owns Warman International Group (machine tools), and holds considerable forestry and paper interests (6, 7).
In 1991, North Broken Hill Peko bought out the Jabiluka uranium and gold deposit of Pancontinental for A$125 million, clearly intending to mine it alongside (or after) Ranger. During July the same year, Prime Minister Hawke stated his "belief " that mining the two deposits in tandem would be a breach of the government's policy (8).
SOURCE: "The Gulliver File - Mines, people and land: a global battleground" by Roger Moody.
Published in 1992 by Minewatch, 218 Liverpool Road, London Nl ILE, UK, and WISE-Glen Aplin, Po Box 87, Glen Aplin Q 4381, Australia.
Distribution: Sales to bookshops: Pluto Press, 345 Archway Road, London N 6 5AA, UK. Sales to the mining industry and libraries: Uitgeverij Jan van Arkel, A. Numankade 17, 357t KP Utrecht, the Netherlands.
***Note to electronic texts: selections from Minewatch are available to researchers on corporate and mining affairs. However, the detailed REFERENCES and CHARTS in the print version are not available in electronic form. You are encouraged to order the complete book from the sources above.***
All rights reserved. © Minewatch, 1992.
Page last updated December 6, 1997.
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