100 lb bar from Broken Hill Australia

[strateloss]

100 lb bar from Broken Hill Mine Australia

I found this vintage bar dimensions 22X3X3 of what appears to be lead, approx weight 100 lbs. I did find some info about the mine and current museum with a search, but haven't had much luck dating it. I believe it is old enough to be Low Alpha Lead. If you have any info that would help me out, I'd really appreciate it.

 

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[Peyton Manning]

what does the left diamond say? Bras?

 

[Army of 1]

Hi Strateloss , Broken Hill mine is a fabulously rich Silver , Lead and Zinc mine discovered in 1883 in far west New South Wales and still going strong . BHP " Broken Hill Proprietary " is the worlds largest mining company .
A cool find but no idea how to date it , good luck ..cheers Mick

 

[Army of 1]

what does the left diamond say? Bras?

Looks like BHAS , could be Broken Hill Assay ? ..cheers Mick

 

[strateloss]

Thanks Mick! "Army of 1"

 

[Eagleye]

Interesting. Good luck with finding out what it is, cool find anyways

 

[diggermatt]

What if it was SILVER......just saying.

 

[strateloss]

What if it was SILVER......just saying.

That would be a serious treat!! Believe me Matt, I have considered that it may be a vintage bar of silver as well. You won't believe how difficult it is to find info on this stuff. I have contacted the mine that is also a museum and still haven't had a response. I figured they could date it for me as well as tell me what exactly it is that I've found. I guess there's always breaking a piece of and taking it to get tested.

 

[diggermatt]

Right, well I hope it is silver.that would be awesome, keep us updated on it.very curious.

 

[JUNKER]

Well if it turns out to be silver your in the money if not you can always go fishing best of luck

 

[diggermatt]

O.k., so far what I looked up is "bhas"stands for broken hill associated smelters.I guess they would extract silver from lead.

 

[keystonecops]

Right, well I hope it is silver.that would be awesome, keep us updated on it.very curious.

If its low alfpha lead, that is still serious money. Later Clyde

 

[Metal Magnet]

wow, let us know what you find out!

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Cool find! Hope it's silver!

 

[GoGoGopher]

Just be glad it did not read "Silent Hill" ...LOL

HH,

 

[CRUSADER]

If it is Low Alpha Lead is worth a lot of money. I don't think though its quite old enough to be really Low Alpha which is what they really want.

 

[49r Relics]

Well if it turns out to be silver your in the money if not you can always go fishing best of luck

Actually if it is alpha decayed lead, your still doing very good. Depending on age and purity, could be very valuable. There is no price guide for aged lead but it is highly desirable and you could name your own price! But how cool is it to find a 100lb ingot? Congrats ;-)

 

[strateloss]

I don't want to speak to soon, but I've received an email from Broken Hill and they have forwarded my request for info to the director there. Hopefully they'll fill in the blanks......let's see if they have any interest as well, possibly to obtain it for their museum. I'll keep you all posted!

 

[strateloss]

This is the response I received from the Historical Society in Broken Hill Australia.

"According to Jenny from the Broken Hill Historical Society this was part of some piece of machinery from the Broken Hill Associated Smelters, used around 1910-1915. This company operated between Broken Hill and Port Pirie."

So it's 100 year old lead, I don't know if it's quite old enough to be the infamous low alpha lead we've all heard about, but still a unique find that can fill the gas tank as a worse case scenario...

 

[diggermatt]

Well, thats pretty cool anyway..neat find.