Kapunda Mine Trail

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The Kapunda Mine Trail is an easy walk of one and a half kilometres and takes about one hour to complete. Interpretive signs explain how the ore was once mined and treated. Kapunda Mine was the first successful commercial metal mine in Australia and together with Burra contributed to the colony's recovery from economic crisis in the early 1840s. A group of miners known as a pare would tender for an area of the exposed ore body and were paid according to the value of ore extracted. The company exercised practically no supervision over the operations and the result was a series of burrows without system or method. Owing to the softness of the white ground, most mining was carried out by pick and shovel without the use of gunpowder. Ore was separated in sorting sheds by hand picking into high grade (prill) and low grade (attle) material.