Location Eyre Peninsula State South Australia | Country Australia | |
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The Middleback Range is a mountain range on the eastern side of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. The Middleback Range has been a source of iron ore for over a century, particularly to feed the Whyalla Steelworks. Mines in the region were first developed by the Broken Hill Proprietary Company from the 1890s and are now owned and operated by Arrium Ltd.
Contents
Geography
The Middleback Range extends from Iron Knob at the northern end near the Eyre Highway to the Lincoln Highway, halfway between Whyalla and Cowell at its southern extent.
The Ironstone Hill Conservation Park is immediately west of the southern part of the ranges.
Geology
The Middleback Range is part of the Cleve Subdomain of the Gawler Craton. The iron ore deposits are primarily of Early Proterozoic metasediments of the Hutchison Group.
Mining
All of the mines in the Middleback Rage are operated as open pit mines, producing magnetite and hematite ores. Magnetite is processed at Whyalla, and hematite is exported. The mines are serviced by private 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) railways which convey the ore to Whyalla's port and steelworks. This railway system was originally built by BHP. As of 2016, the operating mines of the Middleback Range are: Iron Duchess, Iron Knight, Iron Duke, Iron Magnet, Iron Baron and Iron Chieftain.
Iron ore mines in the Middleback Range include: