Broken Hill has been described as the cradle of Australian industry. It has been a source of immense wealth, and a centre of great innovation that not only became one of the greatest mining camps in the world, but also founded a tradition of industrial development that has flowed on throughout the Australian economy

Flotation, the most important and widely used metallurgical process in the world, was first developed there. From its famous line of lode over $70 billion worth of silver, lead and zinc has been produced, a total value more than twice that of all the gold that has come out of Kalgoorlie. This wealth established and drove the growth not only of The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (later to become BHP) but also a host of other famous names of the Australian corporate sector.

Today, Broken Hill is a major regional centre, with an ore body being mined at the rate of 2.4 Mt per annum. Only one mine is operating and it employs about 780 people, which contrasts with four mines and about 4 000 workers as recently as 1985. In 1995 the North mine finally closed, due to the high cost of extraction. The remaining mine, at the south end of the field, is scheduled to close in less than 15 years. There are reasonable prospects for additions to the ore reserve, with discovery of smaller deposits, like the recently approved Potosi deposit, to the north of the old North mine.