Page "Mount Isa" Paragraph 3

The lone gold prospector John Campbell Miles stumbled upon one of the world's richest deposits of copper, silver and zinc upon during his 1923 expedition into the Northern Territory.

While camping on the banks of the Leichhardt River, Miles found the yellow-black rocks in a nearby outcrop reminded him of the ore found in the Broken Hill mine that he had once worked at.

Upon inspection these rocks were weighty and heavily mineralised.

A sample sent away to the assayer in Cloncurry confirmed that Miles had hit the jackpot.

He and four farmers turned miners staked out the first claims in the area.

Taken with friend stories of the Mount Ida gold mines in Western Australia, Miles decided upon Mount Isa as the name for his new claim.