Tallebung, Blaxland Co., New South Wales, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Tallebung	Village (Historical)
Blaxland Co.	County
New South Wales	State
Australia	Country

This page is currently not sponsored. Click here to sponsor this page.

PhotosMapsSearchMineralogy

A general locality only.
Several former tin and gold mines are located in the area.

The Tallebung tin field contains both alluviual and reef tin deposits.
Tin and tungsten were produced intermittently from 1911 to the 1970s.

It should be noted that many early NSW citations, texts and maps show Tallebung spelt at Tallebong (see Harper, L.F.). Also similar named Tullabung Tin Pty Ltd mined at Tallebung.

No definitive name could be located as to who discovered tin at Tallebung. Damont Young 1880, A. Liveridge 1882, C.Eason/A. McDonald 1894, all reported tin in the area, with no confirmation it was the Tallebung site.

The earliest report appears to be in 1897 when a Cobar syndicate started mining at the site. This consisted of W.J. Hogan, Louis Janin, H.J. Cornish, P. Andrews, J. Andrews, and others. They sank a shaft to 100 feet, and when the lode cut out, mining was abandoned. Cursory mining took place by others until 1908 like the Uramby Tin Syndicate in 1900.

Mining was a combination of small parties of miners on individual leases, and small companies who consolidated leases to conduct larger operations. The next record is 1908 when J.H. Reid (tin miner from Tenterfield), A. Dangar, Mark Owen (Condoblin businessman), Towell and others formed a company. A processing plant was erected in late 1910 containing a 13 head stamp battery, two Wilfrey tables, Krupp table, engine and large tank. William Talbot who had been mining at the field in 1903, was appointed mine manager. Ore was obtained from Talbot's old shaft and a new open cut from six combined leases. Mill manager was Dan Doyle from Emmaville NSW. The mine struggled with a lack of water and available workers. The lease was abandoned in 1915.

Other leases at this time were being operated by small parties,(ie. Crowe and Party 1916-1931) and a equally small town developed called Tallebung which at this stage had forty people. In 1941 the town had 150 people, post office, school, and three stores. The town remained in place until 1973. Three companies were formed in 1920 being Tallebung Alluvial Tin Mining Syndicate, East Urambie Tin Mining Syndicate, and Mt Tallebung Tin Mining Syndicate, some lasting until 1927, and others far less time. Their aim was to mine on a larger scale the alluvial tin deposits.

There was an interest in dredging the site not appreciating little water available to undertake this activity. In 1927 the Malay States Tin Mining Company secured leases over the field, however the investors were locals from Forbes and Condoblin. The engineer was E.L. Miles, with an inpeccable family history involved with Tongkah Harbour Dredging Company Malaysia. He was wheeled out for interviews to promote the company when it was formed, and a runmour spread central European royalty had invested into the company. It soon folded.

In the mid 1930's another company was formed suggesting dredging at Tallebung. Wilhelm Reicher (also spelt Riecher) was a trained chemist and engineer who moved to Australia at age 27 from Germany. By the mid the 1930's he owned the Grand Hotel at Broken Hill and a tin mine at Eurowie. Abandoning this, he moved his operation to Tallebung. A company was formed (Tallebung Tin Proprietary Company), and a cyanide plant erected. The company was wound up in 1942. William Reicher died in 1939 aged 71 when crushed by a tram in central Sydney.

Mining reverted to small groups of miners, most prominent F. Gentle, F. Giles, S.C. Theobold (or Theobald), B. Bourke. By 1947 Bourke had died, and J Bourke took over largely being the only one mining ore through the late 1950's to 1963.

From the mid 1950's the idea was to consolidate all the leases into one, and mine the site via large open cuts. In 1952 the Tallebung Tin Mining Company Limited was registerred. In the late 1950's the Tullabong Tin Syndicate Limited was formed, which later changed its name to its subsidiary company the Tallebung Development Syndicate. It is said that the original spelling related to the Aboriginal name for the site (of unknow meaning) however this has not been confirmed. Active mining recommenced in 1962 with large open cuts as a consolidated lease across the entire field. This continued until 1970 when operations ceased, and all machinery at the mine, and public buildings in the town were auctioned in 1973. The stockpiles were reworked in the late 1970's, and any semblance of mining ended by 1984.

The site (as of 2026) remains much as it was from this time. A white wasteland of mullock and water filled old open pits. Sky Metals was formed in 2018 with the intention of re-opening the mine for tin, tungsten and silver production. Across 2023 to 2026 they drilled over 500 holes.

Alluvial tin as cassiterite has been found as coarse wash being old steam channels consisting of rock debris, quartz gravel and silt. The channels progress away from the nearby ridges which contain the tin bearing reefs. At deeper levels the wash contains coarse quartz, slate rubble, and clayey cement. High grades of Sn are found in larger boulders, and closer to the reefs. Cassiterite was found at two levels being 1-5.5 metres from the surface, and the other the bedrock channel.

Granite is needed for tin and the nearest is the Erimeran Granite, a few kilometres to the south, and it has been assumed this is where the tin came from.
The lodes are hosted by claystone, quartzite and slate. This contains numerous discontinous quartz veins as stockworks and tension veins in a general NW to NNW trend. Some lodes are nearly completely angular quartz fragments healed by dark brown to black limonite. The reefs range from threads to 4.6 metres wide,up to 130 metres long, east dipping and cut the bedding. Some are fault and jount fillings. Cassiterite values can vary along the veins, in some cases forming nugget-like pods of cassiterite.

Wolframite can also be found in the veins, at times historically small amounts payable enough to extract. Historically arsenopyrite was found in Plunkett's shaft and pyrite in Pearce's shaft.

Extensive drilling 2023-2026 by Sky Metals also located sphalerite, galena, bornite, scheelite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, 5-10mm cassiterite nuggets, wolframite as 20-50mm clots, secondary yellow tungstite, coarse disseminated silver halides described at present as silver sulphur salts. The sulphides at the time of writing appear to be blebs, rather than massive and extensive. The NSW Geological Survey stated testing at Pearce's shaft produced ferberite, plumbojarosite, jarosite, stolzite, beudanite, minium, massicot, and realgar.

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded from this region.

Mineral List

Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities

11 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

Rock list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities