Kettle wicker chair rust-stained and crumbling at the

rust-stained and crumbling at the hinges

dry grass standing chest-high between the buildings

Basic oxygen steelmaking arrived at Port Kembla in 1972

The facility operated for 96 years before closing in May 1999

Kettle wicker chair rust-stained and crumbling at theA rusted enamel kettle sits on a wooden shelf inside one of the Ogurawa settlement's derelict company houses, its surface thick with dust. The Ogurawa settlement was built and owned by Nitchitsu Co. Ltd. to house the workforce of Chichibu Mine, which operated in this remote Saitama valley from 1940 until its final closure on 30 September 2022. The last permanent resident left in September 2006. Part of the Nichitsu Mining Village series.