Modern tin mining and processing at Melaleuca, Port Davey, Tasmania

In 1935, cassiterite was discovered on the Melaleuca plain and the deposits were exploited by a succession of small-scale operations. In 1941, the lease was purchased by Charles King who worked the deposit alone until 1945 when he was joined by his son Deny King. In the summer of 1973, Peter and Barbara Willson and their young family sailed into Port Davey for a holiday and returned to Hobart having purchased part of the King lease and other leases in the area. As a qualified mining engineer, Peter and Barbara used modern alluvial mining, processing and smelting techniques to produce tin from the peat soils of Melaleuca. Peter started mining at Melaleuca in 1974 with just a pan, pick, shovel and wheelbarrow. The mining operation was gradually expanded with purchases of heavy machinery: a backhoe, excavator and dump trucks. At Melaleuca, cassiterite is found in the gravel sands that lie between bedrock and the overlying peat topsoil. Strip mining proved to be the most economic and practical method of winning the cassiterite-bearing coarse gravel sands. The processing plant used a gravity circuit to separate the cassiterite from the gravel sands and was designed and built entirely by Peter. He also designed and built his first smelter, a blast furnace in 1992 and constructed the reverberatory furnace in 1997. The smelter product still contained some impurities. To improve the quality of the product, two separate refining processes were undertaken. The mine workings encompass a large part of the Melaleuca plain but only a small percentage is still visible from the ground or air due to diligent rehabilitation. In 2011, Peter and Barbara agreed to relinquish the majority of their mining leases to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
In 1935, cassiterite was discovered on the Melaleuca plain and the deposits were exploited by a succession of small-scale operations. In 1941, the lease was purchased by Charles King who worked the deposit alone until 1945 when he was joined by his son Deny King. In the summer of 1973, Peter and Barbara Willson and their young family sailed into Port Davey for a holiday and returned to Hobart having purchased part of the King lease and other leases in the area. As a qualified mining engineer, Peter and Barbara used modern alluvial mining, processing and smelting techniques to produce tin from the peat soils of Melaleuca. Peter started mining at Melaleuca in 1974 with just a pan, pick, shovel and wheelbarrow. The mining operation was gradually expanded with purchases of heavy machinery: a backhoe, excavator and dump trucks. At Melaleuca, cassiterite is found in the gravel sands that lie between bedrock and the overlying peat topsoil. Strip mining proved to be the most economic and practical method of winning the cassiterite-bearing coarse gravel sands. The processing plant used a gravity circuit to separate the cassiterite from the gravel sands and was designed and built entirely by Peter. He also designed and built his first smelter, a blast furnace in 1992 and constructed the reverberatory furnace in 1997. The smelter product still contained some impurities. To improve the quality of the product, two separate refining processes were undertaken. The mine workings encompass a large part of the Melaleuca plain but only a small percentage is still visible from the ground or air due to diligent rehabilitation. In 2011, Peter and Barbara agreed to relinquish the majority of their mining leases to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.