Burra Burra Copper Mine, Burra, North Mt Lofty Ranges, Mt Lofty Ranges, South Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Burra Burra Copper Mine	Mine
Burra	Town
North Mt Lofty Ranges	Mountain Range
Mt Lofty Ranges	Mountain Range
South Australia	State
Australia	Country

A copper mine located about 1 km W of the Burra township, which yielded 10,000 tons of malachite in earlier workings. Mining commenced on the 29th of September, 1845. The population grew rapidly and Burra was soon the 5th largest provincial centre in Australia.

Originally named on the Mines Summary Record Sheets as Burra Burra Mine, it was reported to be of Hindu origin meaning 'Great Great' and also popularly referred to as the 'The Monster Mine' due to its remarkable size and richness of the period. The town is now referred to as just a singular Burra. However, the Mines Summary card for this location, still lists the mine as 'Burra Burra'.

Simple quarrying of outcropping ore went on for many months but gradually shafts were sunk and the mine became a labyrinth of underground galleries. Open cut mining commenced in 1869 in an effort to recover ore pillars and un-mined sections but was not entirely successful and the mine closed in September 1877. A new open cut mine on the site of the original commenced in 1969 to recover low grade carbonate ores. Mining ceased in 1981 with the pit now full of water.

The Burra Mine is situated 150 km north of Adelaide within the Adelaide Geosyncline, and produced 2.7 million tonnes of copper ore in two major mining phases — 1845–1877 and 1970–81. The first phase was initially by underground high-grade tributing, with later open cutting in the 1870s to reduce costs. This realised around 700 000 t averaging 7% Cu. The second phase, carried out by Samin Ltd, was entirely by open cut with the resource estimated at the time as ~3.5 million tonnes grading 1.52% Cu. The final amount of ore mined during 1970–81 was 1.89 million tonnes grading 1.71% Cu. The pre-mining grade was close to 3% Cu. (Drexel, 2009)

Field mapping in 1980–81 by Mines and Energy Geologists J.F. Drexel and W.S. McCallum, followed by petrology of approximately 150 rock samples during 1983–84, and reinterpretation of the thin- and polished sections during the current appraisal of the Burra Mine, has concluded that the orebody was developed by secondary remobilisation of presumably primary chalcopyrite mineralisation associated with syn-depositional and post-depositional magmatic and hydrothermal activity during sedimentation of the host Skillogalee Dolomite of Neoproterozoic age. Secondary copper sulphides, mostly chalcocite, developed from the primary sulphides in an epigenetic environment. Primary and secondary sulphides are now scarce in the open cut, but chalcocite, bornite, covellite and chalcopyrite were present at the bottom of the pit. Supergene enrichment developed the main copper minerals that have been mined — malachite, azurite, chrysocolla and cuprite, with lesser native copper and libethenite. These developed as fracture fills and veins in a relatively open-space environment. Gem-quality botryoidal malachite made the mine world renowned during the 1845–77 mining period. Jigsaw and crackle breccias, often copper mineralised, occur in country rock up to 200 m from the magmatic foci, and related mineralisation extends slightly beyond the open cut limits. (Drexel, 2009)

This site is now under the control of The South Australian Heritage Trust, and all collecting is prohibited.

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