In October, 1875, iron smelting began in Lithgow under the direction of Enoch Hughes. The foundry was erected on Thomas Brown's Esk Bank property where ore was found just beneath the surface of the ground.
Hughes successfully encouraged James Rutherford of Bathurst, a principal shareholder and manager of Cobb and Co., Dan Williams a Canadian railway engineer who had worked on the Zig Zag and the Honourable John Sutherland the Minister for Public Works to join him in this steel making venture. By the end of 1876 the blast furnace was producing over 100 tons of pig-iron per week.