Mining in the Greenbushes area started with tin production in 1888 by the Bunbury Tin Mining Company, which continued until 1930. Over the period from 1935 to 1943 the Greenbushes tin mine transitioned to Vultan Mines which began sluicing operations of the weathered tin oxides. Later from 1945 to 1956, modern earth moving equipment was introduced, and tin dredging initiated. In 1964 a new corporation, Greenbushes Tin NL was formed and open cut mining of the softer oxidised rock commenced in 1969.
Tantalum mining commenced in 1992 with an ore processing capacity of up to 0.8 Mt per annum. By the late 1990s demand for tantalum reached all-time highs and the existing high grade Cornwall Pit was nearing completion. In order to meet increasing demand a decision was made to expand the mill capacity to 4 million tonnes per annum and develop an underground mine, to provide higher grade ore for blending with the lower grade ore from the Central Lode pits. An underground operation began at the base of the Cornwall Pit in April 2001 to access high-grade ore prior to the completion of the available open pit high-grade resource. In 2002, the tantalum market collapsed due to a slow-down in the electronics industry and subsequently the underground operation was placed on care and maintenance. The underground operation was restarted in 2004 due to increased demand but again placed on care and maintenance the following year before briefly resuming mining to be put on care and maintenance again in 2008. The lithium open pit operation has continued throughout recent times and mining is now focused on the Central Lode zone. The tantalum mining operation and processing plants have been on care and maintenance since 2005.
Lithium mining by Greenbushes Limited commenced in 1983 with the commissioning of a 30 000 tpa lithium mineral concentrator in 1984-1985. The lithium assets were acquired by Lithium Australia Ltd in 1987 and Sons of Gwalia in 1989. Production capacity was increased to 100 000 tpa of lithium concentrate in the early 1990s and to 150 000 tpa by 1997, which included the capacity to produce a lithium concentrate for the lithium chemical converter market. The Talison Minerals Group was incorporated in 2007 for the purpose of acquiring the assets of the Advanced Minerals Division of Sons of Gwalia by a consortium of US private equity companies led by Resource Capital Funds. Upon completion of the reorganisation of the Talison Minerals Group in 2010, the company was split into Talison Lithium and Talison Tantalum, which became Global Advanced Metals. The capacity of the lithium operation has progressively increased to1.5 Mtpa of ore feed yielding ~740 000 tpa of lithium concentrates. The tantalum operation was re-opened in 2011.
