The death knell may be tolling for one of Australia's most famous mines but the city built on its back is choosing hope over mourning.
Broken Hill's Rasp - the original BHP mine that marked the start of the world's largest silver, lead and zinc operations - has slipped into a staged closure, with works aside from rehabilitation grinding to a halt.
The local office phone for its owner CBH Resources, the zinc producer that acquired the mine in 2001, is ringing out.
Rumours are swirling about the possibility of a buyout by Broken Hill's last longstanding mining company Perilya, but it has not confirmed whether a deal is on the table after CBH said its own parent company was "not in a position" to further invest.
Some in the far west NSW city believe the mine will permanently close, but prominent locals see that as an opportunity rather than a loss.
Larry Angell is caretaker of White's Mineral Art and Mining Museum, the 68-year-old stepping up in April 2023 following the death of its founder Kevin "Bushy" White, who established the attraction with his wife Betty.
The museum is home to hundreds of Mr White's crushed mineral artworks including a scale model of Broken Hill's Line of Lode, the massive ore body that runs through the outback city.
It also features Mrs White's collection of more than 1000 dolls, and dioramas depicting mining's history created by Bushy's brother Ted White.
"I just felt so strongly about preserving the place," Mr Angell told AAP.
The local tourism buff and former miner wants Rasp transformed into a world-class underground attraction, and has given the local government a document with diagrams detailing how it could work.
The attraction would serve as an unique museum, taking tourists through BHP's birthplace using the mine's existing underground roads and infrastructure, which are more extensive than those at surface level in Broken Hill.
Different sections of the Line of Lode would show visitors how mining has changed over the decades, and could double as a miner training facility.
Mr Angell also wants mining artefacts and Mr White's mineral art relocated to a new building atop the Line of Lode.
"There's so much potential for what's there," he said.
"No one gets anything (from filling in the hole), so we could start mining tourists."
His vision is a cut above the existing tourist offering that consists of a miner's memorial along with a long-vacant cafe, for which the NSW government has been unable to find a tenant despite spending about $6.5 million on improvements.
The first round of renovating the cafe cost about $5.5 million but the government neglected to fit it with a kitchen.
Broken Hill Mayor Tom Kennedy says the council has considered putting the Rasp mine's remediation bond towards making it a heritage site, complete with museums, but such a project would likely require backing by a large donor.
"It might be BHP for example, it might be Clive Palmer, or it might be someone who is really interested in that historical-type mining project, because it would cost a lot of millions of dollars to keep active," he told AAP.
"You'd have international tourists in the tens of thousands, geologists, scientists (and) university educators coming to Broken Hill ... if that was set up because to have an operating mine as a living museum, it would be probably the only one in the world."
Mr Kennedy says mining in Broken Hill will be far from over should Rasp close, instead thinking it "will never not be" the city's predominant industry.
Like many locals, the mayor is putting stock in new projects such as Canadian compressed air storage venture Hydrostor and cobalt sulphate-producing Cobalt Blue.
He wants the federal government to help fast-track the two projects, which are hoped to be up and running from about 2027 and expected to create hundreds of jobs in Broken Hill.
Two nearby iron ore projects are yet to have concrete timing, Hawsons Iron in the NSW far central-west and Lodestone Mines near Olary in South Australia, about 115km from Broken Hill.
Cobalt Blue has worked to get the Broken Hill community excited about its project, holding career days for students and encouraging residents to be among its first few hundred shareholders.
The company is pitching the project as aligned with renewable energy, as its cobalt sulphate is intended to be used to produce batteries for electric vehicles.
"People talk about the need to wind back mining - it's exactly the opposite," Broken Hill plant manager Adam Randall tells AAP.
"For development of the modern world to continue - whether (it's) the production of wind turbines, solar farms, electric vehicles - you still need iron, tin, zinc and copper and everything in increasing numbers.
"The scope of mining has expanded to now include a higher focus on critical minerals ... realistically the future of mining has to be based on decarbonisation (and recycling mine waste).
"We're not changing what we're doing - we really need to change how we're doing it."
Aboriginal peoples in Broken Hill have ongoing concerns about the lack of consultation over the city's future, including with mining.
Wilyakali elder Sandra Clark says Aboriginal history in the region is disregarded and excluded from Broken Hill's narrative.
"They are not taking in our cultural perspectives," Aunty Sandra told AAP.
"There are some things that are sacred that shouldn't be seen, but it's all about building that narrative of 'this is mining country, a mining town'.
"It suppresses our story down further to a point where Wilyakali are not being heard."
But the city won't slow down when it comes to mining. The Line of Lode cutting through Broken Hill is not just a reminder of what it was, but also what it wants to remain.
This AAP article was made possible with the support of the Meta Australian News Fund and The Walkley Foundation.
