Flysa spent some of the early years of his life managing construction projects in the northwest of Western Australia to assist in the transportation of iron ore. The projects comprised railways, bridges, and wharves. But how did the iron ore get there? To answer that question, we have to go back a few years.
About 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth was formed as a sphere of molten rock from gases emitted by the Sun. Over millions of years, the surface gradually cooled and formed a solid, uneven, crust with constant upthrust from the molten interior (magma). Volcanic emissions from the molten interior, which broke through the crust, released water vapour into the atmosphere, which gradually condensed and fell as rain, covering the lower depressions in the earth’s surface with water by the force of gravity, thus forming the oceans. Cometary impact also contributed water to the oceans. That all occurred about 3.8 billion years ago. All the time the mountains were pushed up by the magma at the rate of a few millimetres a year, which continues to this day.
Over the eons, much of the earth has been covered by either ice or water, while all the time the mountains crept upwards at an unimaginably slow rate. There are three classes of rock: Igneous, which are rocks formed by cooling of magma; sedimentary, which are rocks formed by deposition on the seabed of particles washed into the oceans or precipitated from minerals in the ocean; and metamorphic, which are either igneous or sedimentary rocks subjected to enormous temperature and pressure.
Quite recently in geological times─about 600 million years ago, a supercontinent known as Gondwanaland consisted of what are now the continents of South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar, India, Australia, and Antarctica. Each continent was seated on a separate tectonic platform of solid rock. The Gondwanaland continents commenced moving apart on their tectonic plates about 180 million years ago, eventually colliding with other continents, or standing alone as in the case of Australia.
About 50 million years ago, the Indian tectonic plate gradually collided with the vast Eurasian tectonic pale at the usual speed of a few millimeters per year, which started Mount Everest on its gradual, and still continuing, upward journey.
During the billions of years before all of that, and then later while Everest was inching its way upwards, minerals containing iron were forming sedimentary rocks on the ocean floor, with one of the principal areas being over what is now known as the Pilbara region in Western Australia.
From about 3.5 billion years ago in the Pilbara and other iron-rich regions, banded iron formations (BIFs) formed as repetitive sedimentary rock layers, consisting of minerals rich in iron, and then in silica. The deposition of iron oxide was caused by the increasing oxygenation of the oceans by blue-green algae, which caused the dissolved iron in the seawater to combine with oxygen and precipitate out of the water. The deposition of silica dioxide was from the shells and skeletons of microorganisms and other sources. Those sedimentary rocks, which were later subjected to metamorphism, and thereby hardened, by temperature from the Earth’s core, contained the alternating layers of minerals we see today. The rich reddish bands consist of iron-rich haematite (Fe2O3), magnetite (Fe3O4), siderite(FeCO3),and pyrite (FeS2). The bluish iron-poor bands consist of chert (fine‐grained quartz) with lesser amounts of iron oxide. Over the eons while that occurred, the BIFs and other iron-rich deposits, either rose out of the ocean, or the ocean disappeared, giving us today’s accessible iron ore deposits.
The original inhabitants of Australia were the dinosaurs, who appeared In the Paleozoic Era of about 541 million years ago, at the time when the Australian landmass was still part of the supercontinent Gondwanaland. The dinosaurs stomped over the BIFs and were the traditional owners. Sadly, they disappeared about 66 million years ago when an asteroid collided with the Earth. Any legitimate traditional owner must prove direct descent from the dinosaurs.
Gold was discovered in the Pilbara region of Western Australia in 1888, when James (Jimmy) Withnell, the son of pioneers who had a cattle station at Roebourne (as did Flysa’s ancestors), picked up a stone to throw at a crow which had spilt flour he was to use for his damper, and saw that the rock contained gold. He quickly found more nuggets in the same area.
The nuggets were taken to Roebourne’s Resident Magistrate, Colonel Edward Fox Angelo, who sent a telegram to the Colonial Secretary in Perth. Sir Malcolm Fraser: "Jimmy Withnell picked up a stone to throw at a crow seeing it glitter discovered gold stated to run very rich at mallina station peewar river thirty miles from forrester island."
Only the first line of the telegram, "Jimmy Withnell picked up a stone to throw at a crow", was received in Perth. The telegraphed reply came back: "Really, what became of the crow?”
During the ensuing years, high-grade iron ore was discovered in the Pilbara region in 1938, but its mining and export was not permitted because of the imminence of World War II and the Japanese threat. The majority of deposits were not discernible from the air.
The following map shows the iron ore mining areas in Western Australia.
Langley (Lang) Hancock was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1909. He spent his early years on his family’s cattle, and then farming properties, in the northwest of WA. At age eight, he commenced boarding at Saint Aloysius Convent of Mercy at Toodyay, WA. Toodyay was Flysa's father’s hometown, who was also born in 1909, so their paths must have crossed. Lang was then a boarder at the prestigious Hale School in Perth. On graduation, he returned to the family property.
In 1938, Lang, who was a distant relative of stone-thrower James Withnell’s mother Emma, formed a mining partnership with a school friend, Peter Wright, under the name of Hancock and Wright, and commenced mining blue asbestos at Wittenoom Gorge in the Pilbara. Lang was always fascinated by mining, and as a child had discovered blue asbestos at Wittenoom. At that time, the danger of mining blue asbestos was not appreciated. During one university vacation, Flysa applied for a job as an underground machine miner at Wittenoom. Should he have been successful, he would not be here today to write this. Lang disposed of his interest in 1948.
While on a flight through a gorge in the Pilbara in 1952, Lang noticed the stratified iron ore and concluded that it must be high-grade. He organized aerial surveys and assays, but did not stake his claim, as the export of iron ore was banned by the Government, and so kept his discovery secret. In 1961, Lang succeeded in having the ban against iron ore export lifted. Exploration was widespread, and in 1962 Lang was permitted to stake his claim and was awarded a mining tenement lease, which he named the “Hope Down Tenement” after his wife Hope. He had discovered the largest iron ore deposit in the world.
Staking a claim was, and is, like that portrayed in movies about the Wild West. The area claimed as a mining tenement should be rectangular and must have a post a metre in length at least erected at each corner. Irrespective of who owns land in Australia, the Government retains title to all minerals below the surface. All that Lang had to pay was a $5,000 application fee, and also agree to pay royalties from the sale of the iron ore to the Government. By a magnanimous gesture, he joined up again with his friend Peter Wright in 1966, following which they subcontracted the mining of the Hope Downs Tenement to the mining giant, Rio Tinto. In addition to Hope Downs, iron ore was also mined, processed, and transported by rail from the various mine sites owned by international companies in the Central Pilbara, such as Mount Tom Price, Mount Newman, Mount Goldsworthy, and Mount Whaleback, to the shipping terminals at Port Hedland and Dampier for export.
Prior to being loaded into the rail wagons, the excavated iron ore was crushed into small particles of iron ore concentrate in specially designed treatment plants, and then loaded onto conveyor belts.
Lang was a true-blue conservative. He advocated small government, supported the National Party, and would certainly have voted “No” in the recent farcical referendum, He died in 1992.
That is where our story finishes, except as a final word from the Flysa Ironsteinion Institute:
In Western Australia, you can become a multi-millionaire by simply hammering four posts into the ground before anyone else does.
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