William Henry Corbould

William Henry Corbould (4 November 1866 – 16 March 1949) was an Australian mining engineer and company executive. He played a key role in the establishment of Mount Isa Mines in Queensland.

Early life Corbould was born on 4 November 1866 in Ballarat, Victoria. He was the son of Julia Augusta (née Signall) and William Corbould, a tailor. He left school at the age of twelve but later obtained a certificate in chemistry at the Ballarat School of Mines. From 1885 he worked at the Central Mine in Broken Hill, New South Wales, as an assayist and chemist.

Career Corbould spent time in the United States, Europe and South Africa in the early 1890s. He returned to Australia and by 1895 was manager of Paddy Hannan's Reward mine in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. In about 1902 he was appointed manager of the Burraga copper mine in New South Wales.

Mount Isa In 1924, Corbould floated Mount Isa Mines Ltd (MIM) in Sydney. He had been invited to tour the field, assessing the ore bodies discovered by John Campbell Miles as similar to those at Broken Hill. He was appointed director and general manager of the new company, supervising the exploratory work and raising capital. Corbould played a key role in consolidating MIM's ground, engineering the acquisition of Randolph Bedford's Mount Isa Proprietary Ltd. He also convinced the state government to extend the Great Northern Railway from Duchess to service the mine. He resigned from the company in 1927 but lived to see it pay its first dividend in 1947.