page_title: British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company
hierarchical_section_title: British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company
caption_attribution_description: English: Centre Street, Port Lempriere (now a part of Beauty Point), Tasmania (1875) with the British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company's blast furnace in the backgound. in the distance. Unknown artist / engraver. State Library of Victoria. This view was made in or before December 1875.
context_page_description: The British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company was an iron mining and smelting company that operated from 1874 to 1878 in Northern Tasmania, Australia. It was formed by floating the operations of a private company, the Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company that operated between 1871 and 1874.
  This venture was the largest of the four that smelted iron from local iron ore in Tasmania during the 1870s.
  The company’s operations included an iron ore mine near Anderson’s Creek and a railway from the mine to its blast furnace and port near Redbill Point—now part of modern-day Beauty Point—on the West Arm of the Tamar River estuary in Northern Tasmania. Its blast furnace—the largest and most modern in Australia for its time—produced pig-iron June 1876 to August 1877.
  Both well-capitalised and well-managed, the BTCIC used well-designed processes and equipment. However, the venture failed, mainly because the chromium content of its iron ore reached levels that resulted in pig-iron of an unsaleable quality. Consequently, planned expansion—such as steel-making—was never commenced.
context_section_description: The British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company (BTCIC) was an iron mining and smelting company that operated from 1874 to 1878 in Northern Tasmania, Australia. It was formed by floating the operations of a private company, the Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company that operated between 1871 and 1874.
  This venture was the largest of the four that smelted iron from local iron ore in Tasmania during the 1870s.
  The company’s operations included an iron ore mine near Anderson’s Creek and a railway from the mine to its blast furnace and port near Redbill Point—now part of modern-day Beauty Point—on the West Arm of the Tamar River estuary in Northern Tasmania. Its blast furnace—the largest and most modern in Australia for its time—produced pig-iron June 1876 to August 1877.
  Both well-capitalised and well-managed, the BTCIC used well-designed processes and equipment. However, the venture failed, mainly because the chromium content of its iron ore reached levels that resulted in pig-iron of an unsaleable quality. Consequently, planned expansion—such as steel-making—was never commenced.
  After the BTCIC was wound up in 1878, the assets were sold to the ‘Purchase Company’; the new company tried to overcome the problem of high chromium content, but it eventually broke up and sold the assets at auctions held in June 1883 and February 1885.
  There is very little remaining now of this relatively large—for its time—mining and smelting operation. The two company towns, Port Lempriere (the port township and the site of the blast furnace) and Leonardsborough (near the mine site) no longer exist.
caption: Centre Street, Port Lempriere (now part of Beauty Point, Tasmania), with the British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company's blast furnace in the background. Unknown artist / engraver. State Library of Victoria.[1] This view was made during or before December 1875.
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