Day Dream Smelter, Archaeological site and former mining complex in Broken Hill, Australia
Day Dream Smelter is a former mining facility near Broken Hill that displays stone walls, a chimney stack, surface trenches, and shaft access holes scattered across the site. The remains show the scale of early silver processing operations in this remote area.
This facility was established in 1882 to process silver ore from local discoveries and contained two furnaces of different sizes. It shut down in 1886 when the nearby mine built its own processing furnaces.
The site represents the industrial methods and working conditions of miners who labored twelve-hour shifts six days per week by candlelight.
The site sits roughly 20 kilometers northwest of Broken Hill and is protected as heritage property. Visitors can access the remains freely, as they are maintained by the local council.
The smelter briefly reopened in 1886 to process initial production from the Broken Hill Mine before that facility constructed its own furnaces.
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