Alumina to Zirconia: The History of the CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry

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Alumina to Zirconia

The History of the CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry

IJ Bear, T Biegier and TR Scott

National Library of Australia Cataloguing in Publication entry

Alumina to Zirconia: The History of the CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry.

Bibliography.

Includes index.

ISBN 0 643 06678 0.

1. CSIRO. Division of Mineral Chemistry – History. 2. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (Australia). Minerals Utilization Section – History. 3. Mineral industries – Research – Australia. 4. Mineral industries – Australia – History. 5. Minerals – Research – Australia. 6. Mineralogical chemistry – Research – Australia. I. Scott, T.R. II. Biegler, T. III. Bear, I.J. IV. CSIRO Minerals.

622.072094

© CSIRO 2001

Published by CSIRO Minerals

Box 312 Clayton South VIC 3169

Telephone (03) 9545 8500

Fax (03) 9562 8919

Copies available from CSIRO Minerals

Editor and Production Manager: Marta Veroni

Cover and layout design: Melissa Gibson

Foreword

CSIRO Mineral Chemistry has long been an icon. For many years it has contributed to the Australian Mineral Industry with exciting and innovative science targeting practical applications and solutions to the unique challenges faced by our mining companies. It has achieved this because it has always had that rare combination of world-class scientists, inspired leadership and close working relations with individual companies.

I am privileged to have had a long association with the Division, having worked as a vacation student at a sister division located nearby on the original site of Mineral Chemistry and then working with colleagues at Mineral Chemistry during my 17 years at CSIRO.

I therefore commend this book to readers who will gain a glimpse of the zeal and the extraordinary talent of the people that comprised the Division of Mineral Chemistry and the great lengths these people went to push back the frontiers of science in the pursuit of applications to keep our Mineral industry a world leader.

Robin Batterham

Chief Scientist of Australia

Chief Technologist Rio Tinto Limited

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Prologue

Part 1 – Origins

Minerals Utilization Section (1940–1959)

Overview

Section Head to First Chief

Staff and Research Overview

Research Projects – 1

Australian Heavy Mineral Beach Sands

The Rare Earth Projects

Titanium Projects

Other Beach Sand Projects

Nuclear Materials

Uranium Projects 1 (1942–1957)

Thorium

Zirconium

Copper

Hydrometallurgy of Copper

Part 2 – The Division of Mineral Chemistry (1959–1987)

The CRL Years (1959–1970)

The New Division – Overview

The Second Chief of the Division of Mineral Chemistry

The Port Melbourne Site

Amalgamation with Coal Research

Other Changes

Visit of the Governor

Interchange

Overview of Research Investigations

Research Projects – 2

Cyanidation of Gold

Energy Chemistry Projects

The Fuel Cell Project

Plasma Chemistry

Aluminium Projects

The Acid Alumina Process

The CRASO Project

Environmental Projects

Hot Ground at Mt Isa Mines

Electrostatic Precipitation

The McArthur River Zinc–Lead Concentrates

Borehole Logging

Mineral Beach Sands Projects

A Zirconium Chemicals Industry for Australia – 1

The Beneficiation of Ilmenite – 1

An International Centre of Excellence in Solid State Chemistry

The MRL Years (1971–1978)

The Koch Era Commences – Overview

The Third Chief

Programs and People

Summary of Research Projects

Projects for More Detailed Review

Research Projects – 3

Iron Ore Research

The Beginning

Pelletising Research

Beneficiation of Low-Grade Ore

Direct Reduction Research

Sintering Research

In Summary

Organisational Changes

The Beneficiation of Ilmenite – 2

The ‘Connor Affair’ and Coal to Oil

Environmental Research

Air Pollution

Aquatic Environment – The ILZRO Project

Solid and Liquid Wastes

Towards Energy Conservation

Sulfides

Modified Smelting Process for Chalcopyrite Concentrates

Sulfur Activation-Leach-Electrolysis

Electrochemical Treatment of Sulfides

Materials for Solar Energy Applications

Solar Collectors and Cover Plates

Photoelectrochemistry and Photovoltaics

The Institute Years (1979–1987)

Organisational Changes – Overview

Birch Report and the Formation of Institutes

Reorganisation and Review of the Division of Mineral Chemistry

The Fourth Chief

McKinsey Review of CSIRO

Research Overview

Mineralogical Studies

Structural and Phase Relationship Studies

Minimising Hazards in Mineral Transportation

Thermodynamics

Chemistry of Surfaces

Growing ‘Designer’ Crystals

Magnesite Beneficiation and Value-Added Product Development

Hydrometallurgy

Aluminium

Carbon Research – Brown-Coal Char

Titanium Mineral Processing

Monazite

Research Projects – 4

Treatment of Low-Grade Phosphate Rock

Solution Mining at Mutooroo Copper Mine

Uranium Projects – 2

Chemistry of the DARS Process

Brief Outline of Post-DMC Work

The Electrowinning of Zinc

Introduction

The Commercial Process

Efficiency of the Process

Loss of Efficiency

DMC Research on Coulombic Efficiency in Zinc Electrolytes

Electrowinning Zinc at High Current Density

Nickel Metal Powder

The Swelling of Precipitated Nickel

The Grinding of Precipitated Nickel Powder

Nickel Basket Anodes for Electroplating

Composite Nickel-Iron Anodes

A Zirconium Chemicals Industry for Australia – 2

Epilogue

Froth Flotation

Introduction

The History of Flotation and Wark's Contribution

How Flotation came to DMC

Electrochemistry of Sulfide Flotation

Pulp Chemistry

Ultrafine Particles in Flotation

Cleaning Coal by Froth Flotation

Enhancing Coal Flotation with Surfactants

Wisdom of an Elder

Gold, Silver and Platinum Group Elements

Thiourea Leaching

Carbon-in-Pulp Technology

Controlled-Potential Sulfidisation

Gold and Silver Extraction from Hellyer Lead–Zinc Flotation Middlings

Extraction of Platinum, Palladium and Gold from Coronation Hill Ore

Energy Storage

Leclanché-Type Cell

Secondary Batteries

Lead–Acid Batteries

The Energy Storage Section

Batteries for Remote Areas

Batteries in Solar Powered Vehicle Race

Companions in Research

Introduction

Administration and Clerical Services

Management

Receptionists/Telephonists

Personal Secretaries

Administration and Office Staff

New Buildings

Library and Communications Services

Introduction

Libraries and Library Staff

Information Officer

Editors

News-sheets

Technical and Site Services

Melbourne Workshops

Sydney Workshops

Stores

Food Services

Drawing Offices

Glass Blowers

Other Site Services

Scientific Support Services

Analytical Services

Electronic and Computing Services

Electron Microscope and Computing Services

Fire!

X-ray Services

Photographic Services

Making Tools for the Job

THERMODATA

Simple On-Stream Xanthate Monitor

Pot-Grate Simulator for Iron Ore Pellet Production

Triangular Sweep Generator for Electrochemical Research

Measuring Trace Impurities in Zinc Plant Electrolyte for On-Stream Control

Feeder for Metering Fine Powders

Incinerator for Coal Washery Wastes

Battery Monitoring, Testing and Control Equipment

Instrument for Controlling Furnace Temperature

Borewater Sampling Device

Coal Combustion and Ash Precipitation Rig

Rotating Ring Disc Electrode with a Removable Disc

Two-Colour Pyrometer for Measuring the Temperature of Individual Combusting Particles 337

Rietveld Analysis

QEM*SEM – The Quantitative Evaluation of Minerals by Scanning Electron Microscopy

Towards ALF, PC-MICROBEAM and CHIMAGE

Plasma Furnace for Processing Minerals and Materials

The MRC or The Mickey Rat(tie) Club

Divisional Social Club

The Epilogue

Part 3 – Publications & Appendices

References

Prologue

The Minerals Utilization Section

The CRL Years

The MRL Years

The Institute Years

Companions in Research

Appendices

Appendix 1: Thomas's Fifty Projects

Appendix 2: The Wadsley Rules

Appendix 3: Additional Iron Ore Projects

Appendix 4: Chiefs of DMC

Appendix 5: Special Contributors to this History

Appendix 6: Awards & Special Distinctions

Abbreviations

Index

Preface

The Australian mineral industry has always been a cornerstone of the Nation's identity and prosperity. Many of the early migrants to Australia came in search of gold. Gradually, as prospectors turned their attention to other metals and minerals, the huge ore resources of the country became apparent.

The Australian Government's support for research for industry dates back to 1916, but it was to be another decade before a new act resulted in the formation of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which in 1949 became the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). In its early years, funding for CSIR was so limited that research was restricted almost entirely to projects related to agriculture, and a further decade was to pass before the Government decided to extend CSIR activities to specifically include research for secondary industry. Thus, in 1940, a Division of Industrial Chemistry (DIC) with Dr Ian Wark as Chief was established within CSIR. This Division was located in Melbourne.

The Minerals Utilization Section was one of the five original Sections set up within the Division to cover selected areas of research. It was this Section that in 1959 became the Division of Mineral Chemistry with Dick Thomas, who was the Head of the Minerals Utilization Section, its first Chief.

In Alumina to Zirconia, we have endeavoured to relate the history of the Division of Mineral Chemistry from its origins as the Minerals Utilization Section through several organisational changes under the guidance of four Chiefs — Dick Thomas, Ivan Newnham, David koch and Tom Biegler — until the end of 1987, when the name of the Division was changed to Mineral Products.

In later years, Mineral Proudcts was merged with the Division of Mineral Engineering to become the Division of Minerals. (NB: Mineral Engineering Section of DIC.) It is the Division of Minerals under the leadership of Dr Rod Hill, who commenced his outstanding career in CSIRO in the Division of Mineral Chemistry, that has financed the publication of this history.

That the history was written owes much to Dr David Koch, third Chief of the Division of Mineral Chemistry. It was David who in 1985 persuaded Ivan Newnham, in his retirement, to undertake the initial project and it was he who arranged for Eleanor Ellis to assist Ivan with the work and provided Divisional facilities for the purpose.

For Ivan Newnham it was a courageous and arduous undertaking, as he was already suffering the effects of a crippling affliction that seriously impaired his ability to write. It was typical of the man that, to overcome his writing handicap, he taught himself to use a computer and word-processing program. Before he died on the 4 September 1986, he had completed a draft manuscript of a brief history of the Division, but by then David Koch had taken up an appointment in Western Australia as Chief of CSIRO Division of Minerals and Geochemistry and Eleanor Ellis had retired.

As a close colleague of Ivan's I had the opportunity to review his manuscript. It was evident that this work, together with early photographs collected by Eva Kowal, could form the basis of a more substantial history of the Division — a significant part of Australia's mineral heritage.

Discussions with colleagues revealed considerable support for this view. In particular, Tom Scott and Alan Wylie, foundation members of the Division, shared my concern that anecdotal material and scattered records should be collected before they were lost. We started work. The Chief, Dr Tom Biegler, was sympathic to the cause, providing me in retirement with an Honorary Fellowhip to continue the work. Tom's knowledge of the many organisational changes in CSIRO, of the final years of the Division and all that followed was invaluable, and he subsequently joined Tom Scott and myself in compiling the history.

Thus, together, we have sought to collate information derived from many sources and combine it with Ivan's original text to provide a history that:

• covers in broad outline many of the main projects undertaken by the Division of Mineral Chemistry and its forerunner, the Minerals Utilization Section,

• highlights achievements but, at the same time, brings out difficulties encountered in both the scientific and technological research itself, and in the commercialisation of newly developed processes,

• acknowledges the contributions of both research and support staff,

• acknowledges the close association of the Division with, and the contribution to research by, the Australian minerals industry,

• is informative and interesting to the general reader.

Part 1 deals with the origins of the Division as the Minerals Utilization Section of DIC. Established during World War II, many of its early projects related to the war effort. Some of these projects, particularly those concerned with nuclear materials, were continued and extended after the war, while more basic studies were also undertaken.

Part 2 contains the history of the Division itself and is presented under four major headings, three of which relate to CSIRO organisational arrangements pertaining at the time.

When divisional status was first achieved in 1959, Mineral Chemistry was grouped with other divisions that had evolved from DIC (and any remaining Sections) to form The Chemical Research Laboratories — thus the first segment which covers the period 1959 to 1970 is entitled The CRL Years.

By the end of the 1960s with the minerals industry booming, the staff of Mineral Chemistry had doubled. Staff numbers had been further augmented in 1967 when the Division of Coal Research became the Sydney arm of the Division of Mineral Chemistry. Thus at the end of 1970, the Executive reorganised minerals research in CSIRO to form the Minerals Research Laboratories. The reorganisation brought together three Divisions — Mineral Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Mineralogy — under the Directorship of Ivan Newnham, with David Koch replacing Ivan as Chief of Mineral Chemistry. This association continued (with several additions and modifications) until the end of 1978. The history of this period is presented under the title The MRL Years.

In December 1978, following the Birch Inquiry of 1977, CSIRO was reorganised into five research institutions with Mineral Chemistry becoming one of nine Divisions and two Units making up the Institute of Earth Resources (later the Institute of Energy and Earth Resources). Ivan became Director of the new Institute while David continued as Chief of Mineral Chemistry.

David had long seen the need for a Mineral Chemistry research effort in Perth. He finally succeeded in obtaining CSIRO support for the proposal, so in January 1984 the Surface Chemistry Section, led by Dr Len Warren, moved from Melbourne to Perth. Part of the Division of Mineralogy was already located in Perth (the other part in Sydney) and in May 1985 a decision was made to split the Mineralogy Division and bring together all the mineral-related research in Perth to form a new Division of Minerals and Geochemistry. In July 1985, David Koch was appointed Chief of this Division, while Tom Biegler was appointed Acting Chief of Mineral Chemistry.

These changes trigged an external review of the Division of Mineral Chemistry, and it was not until this review was completed that advertisements for a new Chief appeared. Tom Biegler's application was successful, and in 1987 he became the fourth Chief of the Division of Mineral Chemistry.

Even more far reaching in its impact on Mineral Chemistry was the overall review — McKinsey Review — of CSIRO structure and management, which resulted in a new organisational philosophy, together with changes to the structure, names and alliances of the Institutes. Finally, the Division of Mineral Chemistry came to an end on 31 December 1987 when it became the Division of Mineral Products. Therefore, the segment of our history from 1979 until the end of 1987 is entitled The Institute Years.

Each of the above three segments of Part 2 contains an overview of the organisational arrangements, staff, and research investigations for the period, followed by a more detailed account of specific projects.

The fourth major heading in Part 2 — Companions in Research — records the vital contribution provided by the various support services in the Division.

Part 3 covers publications and appendices.

In compiling this history, we are conscious of the valuable assistance we have received from colleagues, both past and present. Many provided us with written contributions to the work and/or photographs from personal collections, some vetted sections of text, others joined in helpful discussion. We thank them all for their encouragement and enthusiasm. We wish to express our appreciation to Colin Smith and to Rodney Teakle and his staff, particularly Cathy Hobbs-Fawkner and Wendy Davies, of CSIRO Archives for their help and interest in locating obscure files relevant to the history. We also wish to acknowledge Eleanor Ellis's contribution to the original Brief History of the Division, and the patience and perseverance of Jean Eades and Marjory Porter in their word-processing of the many draft versions of the manuscript. We thank Andrea Boothroyd, Market Communications Manager for CSIRO Minerals from November 1996 to March 2000, for her helpful advice and unstinting effort and competence in organising editorial and publication details for this History. When Andrea left, Len Warren took over management of publication. In this he had the competent collaboration of Minerals Senior Marketing Officer, Emma Booth. We thank them both for their contribution. Len's long time support for, and interest in, the history is much appreciated.

Joy Bear

Prologue

An Institution is wanted that is capable of adapting itself at once to the circumstances of Australia.

W.M. Hughes¹

The Australian Government's involvement in mineral research had its beginnings with the formation of the Advisory Council of Science and Industry in 1916. Ivan Newnham in his paper ‘The Government Role in Minerals Research’ notes that during its first year of existence the Council supported investigational work on ferro-alloys, gold and alunite.² This early enthusiasm for mineral work was short lived. In 1920 the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry was established and for several years research related to primary industries other than mining and metallurgy was considered paramount. Indeed, another two decades were to pass before the Government's role in minerals research was to be put on a firm footing.

On 21 June 1926 a new Act — the Science and Industry Research Act — amended the Institute of Science and Industry Act 1920 and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) came into being.³

To appreciate the setting for our History the mode of governance and organisation of research within CSIR and its successor, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) needs to be briefly outlined.

Control of this new research body was vested in a Council that consisted of nine statutory members — an Executive Committee of three members (including the chairman) appointed by the Commonwealth Government and the chairmen of the six State advisory committees. The Council had the option of co-opting additional members. The Executive Committee was responsible for carrying out the Council's functions between Council meetings. Two of its members — George A. Julius (later Sir George), the first Chairman of the Council, and Professor A.E.V. Richardson served part-time; the third member was A.C. David Rivett (later Sir David).⁴ Rivett had been persuaded to give up his Chair in Chemistry at the University of Melbourne to become the first full-time Chief Executive Officer of the Council.

This overall mode of governance of what was to become Australia's major national research institution continued until 1949 when the Science and Industry Research Act was amended.⁵–⁷ Under the 1949 Act, the CSIR was reconstituted as the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and ultimate responsibility was transferred from the Council to an Executive of five members, three of whom, including the chairman, were employed full-time. Dr Ian Clunies Ross (later Sir Ian) was appointed Chairman of the Executive.⁶,⁷ The Council continued with its own chairman, but only in an advisory capacity and became known as the Advisory Council.

Research in CSIR was organised in Divisions. Each Division covered projects in the same broad field of study and was headed by a Chief who was given a large degree of autonomy. As CSIR/CSIRO grew, new divisions covering new areas of research were created, while in other cases sections split off from old Divisions and themselves became Divisions. In 1978 the Organization was formally restructured with Divisions covering related areas of research being grouped as Institutes; each Institute being headed by a Director. Thus, a senior co-ordinating level of management was interposed between the Chiefs and the Executive.

For ten years after its formation CSIR continued to give emphasis to research that would stimulate agriculture and primary production in general. But, by then, the political climate was changing with the realisation that national security and economic stability could only be achieved with greater industrialisation. In 1936 the Commonwealth Government decided to extend the activities of CSIR specifically to include research for secondary industry, and the Secondary Industries Testing and Research Committee was appointed to report on the implementation of the decision. This committee recommended that a chemical laboratory for secondary industries should be established under CSIR. However, as some aspects of secondary industry were already covered by existing Divisions of CSIR, in 1939 the Council decided to form a Division of Industrial Chemistry (DIC), appointing Dr Ian W. Wark (later Sir Ian) as its first Chief. He came to the position after three years with the Electrolytic Zinc Company of Australasia, and a subsequent ten years at the University of Melbourne working on flotation research for a group of mining companies.

¹ The quotes of Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia, are extracts from speeches he made at Conferences leading to the formation of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, as recorded in Currie and Graham (1966)

² Newnham (1974)

³ Currie and Graham (1966)

⁴ David Rivett's biography has been written by his son, Rohan Rivett (1972)

⁵ Rivett (1972)

⁶ White (1976)

⁷ Schevdin (1987)

   Part 1

Origins

Science can develop great mineral wealth of which, after all, only the rich outcrop has been exploited…

William Morris (Billy) Hughes

The Minerals Utilization Section

1940—1959

Overview

The widespread dependence of chemical industry on substances of mineral origin was generally appreciated, but there would appear to be scope for a much closer liaison, in many instances, between the actual producers of the crude minerals and those who are concerned with their processing, fabrication, and ultimate use by industry.

There are several ways in which the useful life of a mine, and therefore of its dependent industries, may often be prolonged. … physical and chemical treatment of crude ore is a very desirable, and often necessary, prelude to the utilisation of the ore by industry.

R.G. Thomas (1943)

The origins of the Division of Mineral Chemistry go back to March 1940 when the formation of a Division of Industrial Chemistry (DIC) within the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was finally approved by Cabinet. The Minerals Utilization Section, usually referred to as Minerals Section, from which the Division of Mineral Chemistry emerged, was one of five original sections of the Division housed in the laboratory at Fishermen's Bend, Victoria, near the mouth of the Yarra.

It is noteworthy that this major building was completed in only two years, despite wartime problems, and was ready for occupation in 1942. Sir Ian Wark has written a detailed and excellent account of the founding and early years of the Division.¹

The first Head of Minerals Section was Richard (Dick) Grenfell Thomas, who was appointed in 1940 as Senior Inorganic Chemist, responsible ‘for the analyst, for non-metallic minerals and for ceramics’.¹ Almost two decades later, Thomas became the First Chief of the Division of Mineral Chemistry.

Richard Grenfell Thomas

While the laboratory at Fishermen's Bend was being built, Thomas and his staff worked at the University of Melbourne Chemical School, and Dr Wark and other members of the Division had rooms at 314 Albert Street, Melbourne, then the Headquarters for CSIR. Staff worked until 9 p.m. twice a week and worked Saturday mornings. On work-back nights during 1941, staff from the University laboratory joined their colleagues at Albert Street on library work, as the HQ building was blacked out, whereas University of Melbourne was not. There was little in the way of equipment except for the simplest alchemical bits and pieces, so moving everything in a truck to Fishermen's Bend when the laboratory was completed was no hardship. Thus, the main elements of the Division came together in 1942 in its first major laboratory.

This then is the start of our story. It is a story of the spawning and development of the Division of Mineral Chemistry; a story of the people who made it, of their achievements, failures and oft-times frustrations at their inability to commercialise promising laboratory-scale processes. Above all, it is a story of a continuing endeavour to benefit the Australian Mineral Industry.

The man who led this endeavour through to the founding and establishment of the Division of Mineral Chemistry was Richard Grenfell Thomas.

Section Head to First Chief

Thomas was a remarkable and versatile man with a keenly inquiring mind, and a great love of chemistry and minerals. Personal correspondence with colleagues gives some insight to his early life.²

He was born at Kapunda in SA on 29 March 1901, and his interest in minerals was engendered early in life when as a child he explored the old abandoned copper mine. In his writings, Thomas points out that the green copper ore from Kapunda is unusual in that it is an oxy-chloride, called atacamite (after the Chilian Desert of Atacama). It is not, as most people mistakenly call it, malachite. Some of his earliest experiments, as a child of about six, were to put bits of this green ore into a red-hot fire and obtain ‘the most splendid blue-green colours in the flame as the volatile copper compounds made their presence felt’.

Front view of the Lorimer Street Laboratories of the CSIRO Division of Industrial Chemistry (left of main entrance) and Division of Aeronautics (right of main entrance), taken on the occasion of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

As a student Thomas was fascinated by the table of chemical elements and set himself the task not only of learning their names and finding out where in Australia he could go to obtain the mineral source of each of them, but also of how he would go about processing a particular mineral to extract the element concerned in a more or less pure state. In 1919 Thomas, then 18 years old, rode horseback with an expedition, led by Dr H. Basedow (anthropologist, geologist, explorer and medical practitioner), from Farina (south of Lake Eyre) up the Strzelecki to Birdsville and beyond into Queensland. They returned south along the Cooper and came back to the railway line at Hergott Springs (now Maree). In a letter of 1967 Thomas recounts:

This (the journey) took some four months and several of our horses died of thirst and exhaustion and we were fortunate that we escaped a similar fate as it was a bad drought year. All the incidents of this trip made a deep impression on me and — as is so often the case — only made some sort of repetition inevitable! (I have always indulged a fanciful idea that the spinifex injects an unsettling ‘drug’ into those who, early in life, submit themselves to its irritating prickly hypodermic action!)

My interest in the Mt Painter uranium ores dates from as far back as this as my diary of the time says, ‘in the far distance the blue peaks of Mt Pitts and Mt Painter are visible. It is there that the uranium minerals occur’.

During his student days at the University of Adelaide, he developed life-long friendships with such notables-to-be as Mark Oliphant³ and Arthur Alderman. Later, Thomas was to induce Alderman to join his fledgling Minerals Utilization Section in CSIR to look after the cement work which had just started. On Thomas's advice, the cement group later became a separate section with Alderman as its head. Alderman eventually returned to the University of Adelaide as Professor of Geology, but not before he had established a remarkably successful collaborative study with the cement industry.

As a student, Thomas also developed a close personal friendship with Sir Douglas Mawson, Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Adelaide from 1921 to 1952 and arguably the greatest of Antarctic explorers. In 1968, Thomas's long-time friends, Dr Reg Sprigg and his wife Griselda, purchased the 61 000 hectare (235 square miles) property that covered all the magnificient, rugged area of the north eastern extremity of the Flinders Ranges and co-founded the Arkaroola-Mt Painter Sanctuary. In their book Arkaroola~Mt Painter the Spriggs say of Thomas:⁴

Mt Painter, South Australia.

He will go down in history as the person who in 1944 correctly predicted the discovery of major sedimentary uranium deposits out under the plains from Paralana Hot Springs. Exoil NL proved significant uraniferous accumulations in brown coal in this situation, including the ‘Beverley’ and related deposits.

Thomas's own letters record his feelings of those early days. Again in 1967 he wrote:

On geological camps, led by Mawson, I came to love all this upper Flinders Ranges country with a sort of ‘intoxication’ which has never left me, and has, indeed, extended much further afield. I often burn Callitris pine sticks at home here now as a sort of incense to recall unerringly all those happy days of enthusiastic geological ‘adventure’ (for such it was).

After his death in 1974, Thomas's wishes were carried out and his ashes scattered over Mt Painter in the ranges he loved so well. The following lines from ‘The Witch of Mount Painter’, a sonnet composed by Thomas, are inscribed on a plaque erected to his memory on the ‘Ridge-Tops’ road near Mt Painter in South Australia:

Plaque erected to the memory of R.G. Thomas on the ‘Ridge-Tops’ road, Mt Painter.

Upon this lonely summit have I sought

The witch who holds in liege this arid land

Wherein, with subtle magic, she has wrought

Enchantment that I fain would understand

During his lifetime, Thomas was to make an immense contribution, not only to the Australian minerals industry, but to its livestock industry as well.

After graduating BSc at Adelaide University, Thomas worked for a period with two companies — Radium and Rare Earths Co. and Australian Radium Corporation. The two groups operated at Dry Creek near Adelaide treating minerals from Radium Hill,⁵ near Olary, SA, and Mt Painter to recover uranium, radium, vanadium and scandium.⁶

In 1928 he joined the CSIR Division of Animal Nutrition in Adelaide. There the breadth of his geological and mineralogical knowledge and his almost intuitive understanding of biometallurgy became manifest when he pointed the way to the solution of ‘coast disease’ — a wasting disease afflicting sheep grazing on coastal plains of South Australia. Similar wasting diseases occurred in many parts of the world. It was known that coast sheep commonly suffered from anaemia with a gross lack of red blood cells. Thomas was surveying some areas affected by coast disease.⁷ From his geological knowledge he believed that the regions where coast disease occurred would be deficient in trace elements. He was also aware from the literature that dosing rats with cobalt induced in them an excess of red blood cells. He suggested that animals with coast disease might suffer from a deficiency of cobalt in their diet. Thomas's suggestion was subsequently proved to be correct, but his contribution to the solution of the problem remained unacknowledged until 1972 when Eric Underwood⁸ wrote ‘The Cobalt Story’. In this paper Thomas is given full credit for his contribution to the solution of the problem. This unsolicited acknowledgment gave Thomas great satisfaction during the last years of his life.

While at the Division of Animal Nutrition, Thomas discovered a remarkable occurrence of monazite in an old abandoned mine at Normanville, south of Adelaide. In one of his last letters to a colleague he recalls that he carried on his back literally hundredweights of this mineral monazite — the main source of the so-called ‘rare earths’. In the laboratory, after normal working hours, he set about extracting these rare earth compounds.

The excitement of seeing the gradual emergence of so many, often brightly coloured, compounds as the hundreds of fractional crystallisations proceeded gave me a continuous thrill of satisfaction that I can still recall easily.

This then was the background of the man who responded to the announcement of the formation of a CSIR Division of Industrial Chemistry with a letter of twenty pages to Dr Wark.

For Wark's reaction to that letter one cannot do better than to quote from a tribute paid by Sir Ian in 1975 on the occasion of the naming of the R.G. Thomas Lecture Room at the Port Melbourne site:⁹

When CSIR in 1939 decided to set up a chemical division, Thomas at once saw the vast opportunities this offered for mineral chemistry. I received a very long letter listing a dozen or more areas where there was pressing need for investigations; some of immediate interest in connection with the war, and others of long term interest for development of Australian industry. That letter, timely as it was, determined his subsequent career, for when I showed it to David Rivett¹⁰ he agreed immediately that, by hook or by crook, Thomas must be persuaded to come to Melbourne. Thomas hardly knew what was in store for him, nor did I know what was in store for either of us. However, he did know the ropes within CSIR, and in those early days helped more than any other of my close colleagues to set the pattern of research in the Division of Industrial Chemistry. He also induced some very able and civilised colleagues to come to Melbourne from Adelaide to share his task with him. In those days no one knew quite where mineral research was headed, yet if one looks back to that early letter it really pointed the way not only for the Division of Mineral Chemistry but also for what is now the Division of Mineralogy. Indeed this one man's initiative has led to interesting and valuable work for two hundred people, all of whom have, of course, helped to build on the foundations of Thomas. And it was a source of great pleasure to him that the Chiefs who succeeded him came from his own staff.

In 1948, Thomas visited India as a member of a scientific mission. Wark records that this trip profoundly affected him. It intensified his leaning towards the philosophical and brought into fierce light the many paradoxes of life of which he was conscious. In many ways Thomas was a throwback to the old ‘natural philosophers’ in his breadth of interests. He invented lateral thinking long before it was popularised by Edward De Bono. An example was his interest in argillaceous odour — the characteristic odour generated on moistening dry clays. His observation that this phenomenon was not limited to clays but was exhibited by most silicate minerals and rocks led him to propose the name ‘petrichor’ (ichor meaning tenuous essence) for this unique odour. During the late 1950s he initiated a collaborative study with Joy Bear on the chemistry and genesis of petrichor. Publication of their findings generated worldwide interest.¹¹ In 1971 the subject featured in one of a series of popular science lectures given by Magnus Pyke on the BBC, and in 1976 appeared as a chapter in his book Butter Side Up.¹²

Thomas was an outgoing man and a most entertaining conversationalist. He had friends in all branches of life but especially in the mining industry. Geologists, metallurgists and prospectors loved to visit him and chat in his office at DIC. His friendship with Maurice Mawby after World War 2 was of great value to the Section. Mawby was responsible for exploration and research with Zinc Corporation and, later, Consolidated Zinc Pty. Ltd. Their association led to an extensive collaboration in the treatment of Rum Jungle and other uranium ores in the 1950s. When Mawby became Sir Maurice and chairman of CRA, this company continued to sponsor research in Mineral Chemistry for many years. Likewise, Thomas's contacts in South Australia were invaluable during the close association with the SA Government on the Mt Painter and Radium Hill projects.

With his fertile mind Thomas had no difficulty in conceiving useful projects for his section; the problem of selecting those for immediate attention was solved by the demands of the wartime situation. Of historic interest is his extensive list of 50 projects on non-metallic minerals, prepared at white heat overnight, according to legend (see Appendix 1). Since 1941, more than half of those topics have been studied in CSIRO or elsewhere!

Thomas with Joy Bear studying petrichor.

His thinking can be illustrated by comments attributed to him in Wark's first report on his new division early in 1941.¹³ Most of these remarks are just as relevant nearly 50 years later, a tribute to his foresight.

Staff and Research Overview

One of Thomas's great legacies to Mineral Chemistry was to bring together a team of first class inorganic chemists during 1941–1944. Thomas gave great autonomy to his men and they responded with loyalty and maximum effort. Very few of his senior officers left the Minerals Section, although one of his first appointments was soon lost to become Scientific Liaison Officer in London during World War 2. This was Guy Gresford, who eventually rose to become Secretary to the CSIRO Executive in the 1960s. Also, in 1952, Percy Dixon and Frank Hartley moved to Adelaide as the foundation members of the SA Department of Mines uranium team (see ‘Uranium Projects – 1’). They later played an important part in the formation and development of the Australian Mineral Development Laboratories (AMDEL).

Among other foundation members, probably the most noted academically, was the former Tasmanian, David Wadsley, whose early work on the properties of manganese dioxide led to his crystallographic studies on order and disorder in non-stoichiometric compounds (see The CRL Years). In 1965 he received the HG Smith Memorial Medal for his contribution to chemical crystallography and in 1967 and 1968 (prior to his untimely death in January, 1969) was the subject of letters from the Nobel Committee for Chemistry to Ivan Newnham who, at the time, was Chief of Mineral Chemistry.

One of the more imaginative members was Ken McTaggart who worked initially on the chlorination of rutile and subsequently investigated the concept of butyl titanate heat-resistant paints. His commercial potential was probably not fully appreciated until he left in 1950 to work in the UK with the British company, Laporte Industries. Two years later he returned to Mineral Chemistry to do pioneering studies in microwave chemistry and gas plasma reactions. He was awarded the University of Melbourne's Grimwade Prize in 1946. Notably, Alan Wylie had won the Grimwade Prize the previous year (1945) and Tom Scott received it in 1948. Scott was the first member of the Section to be awarded the degree of DSc for his research in CSIRO. This encouraged many of his colleagues, including McTaggart, Wadsley and Wylie to do likewise in subsequent years.

Alan Wylie, from New Zealand, was Thomas's first appointment, arriving in March 1941. In the 1940s, he supervised two major projects simultaneously, one being a new sulfuric acid process for treating monazite concentrates to produce rare earth oxides (see ‘Beach Sands’ Projects). The other, born of wartime concern for supplies of chromic acid for hard metal plating of aircraft engine bearings, used sulfuric acid to decompose both low and medium grade chromite ores in the presence of chromic acid as catalyst.¹⁴–¹⁶ The filtered extract of chromium sulfate was electrolytically oxidised to crystallisable chromic acid. Kelso Elliot and Joyce Mather were closely associated with this work. Both processes were tested on a pilot plant scale in collaboration with the Chemical Engineering Section, the first such plants at the DIC.

Thomas's second appointee, Margaret Page, also joined the Section in March 1941. Born in Melbourne, but educated in Sydney, Page gained a BSc degree from Sydney University. Appointed as the Section's Assayer, Page's career in CSIR/CSIRO was cut short because in April 1942 she married Alan Wylie and was obliged by the iniquitous ‘marriage bar’ to resign from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

In later years Margaret Wylie was able to use her training in editing of scientific journals and teaching students in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Melbourne.

Page's mandatory resignation highlights just one of the barriers that faced women desirous of making a career in CSIR/CSIRO — barriers that provided impediments for the advancement, job security and financial rewards of all females appointed to the Minerals Utilization Section/Division of Mineral Chemistry prior to the 1970s. Amaya Jane Alvarez provided an historical review of these barriers.¹⁷ In this review she notes:

The fact that married women were a marginalised section of the scientific workforce at the CSIR no doubt had an impact on unmarried women as well, for any woman employed at the Council was potentially a married woman. It would be naive in the extreme to expect that the Council would look on the careers of young women with the same interest with which they looked on those of young men.

The case for equal pay for adult women working under the terms of the same determination or award as their male colleagues, and doing work of like nature and of equal value was not won until 1969, and even then for many the award was phased in over several years.¹⁷,¹⁸

Wedding photograph of Margaret Page and Alan Wylie.

Dr Allan Walkley was an electrochemist, originally from Adelaide like Thomas. His war-time brief was to study ways of improving the performance of dry cells (see under ‘Energy Storage’ in The Institute Years). His team included David Wadsley, who studied the manganese dioxide polarisers, Bob Croft who looked at the behaviour of graphites, and Ray Skewes who started by devising appropriate testing procedures for made-up dry cells. Bob Croft was awarded the Grimwade prize in 1949 and later became known for his work on intercalation compounds of graphite.¹⁹ He was substantially assisted in this project by Lionel Rogers. In 1959, Croft was commissioned by the Chemical Society (London) to write a review of the subject.²⁰ He also pioneered much of the ilmenite to rutile conversion studies.

Dixon and Scott in the early years studied methods for preparing synthetic cryolite and aluminium fluoride which would be required for the fledgling aluminium industry in Australia.²¹,²² The project also involved the investigation of various associated aspects of fluorine compounds.²³–²⁵ Later, their efforts were diverted to uranium extraction. They had commenced work on uranium ores from Mt Painter (SA) in 1944, but from 1948 a major effort was directed to the treatment of ores from Radium Hill (see ‘Uranium Projects – 1’).

Group of Mineral Utilization Section Research Staff. From left: Bob Croft, Allan Walkley, Dave Wadsley, Alan Wylie (front), Arthur Alderman, Enid Plante, Reg Goldacre, Tom Scott.

The story of one early recruit, George Herbert Payne, highlights the frustration and emotional problems suffered by some scientists in that they were not permitted to join the armed services unless their qualifications and skills could be better used to national advantage there than in their civilian jobs.

Payne graduated BSc from the University of Tasmania with Chemistry as a major in 1934. He subsequently obtained a Metallurgical Diploma from the Western Australian School of Mines, Kalgoorlie, where he was employed as an Assistant Research Officer (ARO) by CSIR between May 1935 and June 1939. From June 1939 until September 1940, he was employed as an ARO in CSIR Information Section in Melbourne. During 1940, Payne had asked CSIR for permission to enlist in the fighting services, but he was discouraged from pursuing this course.

In December 1940, Payne transferred to the Minerals Utilization Section of DIC to take up a position in WA with Professor Noel Bayliss (later Sir Noel) to work on the ‘alunite’ project. This was a collaborative project between CSIR and the University of Western Australia to exploit the deposit of alunite (a potassium aluminium sulfate mineral) occurring in the bed of Lake Campion, one of a chain of dry lakes, at Chandler, WA, as a wartime source of potash and alumina. Thomas was given responsibility for the project.

On April 23, 1941, Payne again wrote to the CSIR Executive Committee stating his desire to enlist in the RAAF. This was the beginning of ongoing correspondence between Payne, Gerald Lightfoot (Secretary to the Committee), and Wark.

Inter alia, Payne was informed that Cabinet regarded the production of aluminium in Australia as a wartime project of most urgent importance.

On March 27, 1942, Payne wrote to Wark:

During your visit here last year you will remember that I expressed my continued desire to enlist with the R.A.A.F. should opportunity arise. This was before Japan's entry into the war and with the undoubted deterioration in the war situation since then, the Air Force is apparently more urgently in need of recruits than ever before.

As a result, my application for enlistment has been accepted as from the 24th inst., since when I have been on the R.A.A.F. Reserve.

On April 8, Wark wrote to David Rivett telling him of Payne's enlistment and in part continued:

The manpower authorities have decided, after mature consideration, that the profession of chemistry is a reserved one, which implies that no chemist should be accepted for service in the fighting services unless his professional knowledge and experience is to be fully utilized. The manpower authorities in Western Australia, are, therefore, in error in accepting Payne. In my opinion this should be pointed out by the Council, and the R.A.A.F. asked that Payne should not be called up for service.

The Executive had already received notice of Payne's enlistment. Rivett telegraphed Payne asking him to reconsider his enlistment and Wark wrote to him conveying his and the Executive's views on the matter. Payne replied in an aggrieved tone, but reluctantly agreed to comply with the Executive's request.

Bayliss commented to Wark that he was afraid Payne's sense of grievance would react unfavourably on his work.

Payne had wished to be a navigator in the RAAF, but having failed in that endeavour promptly applied for a position with the scientific staff of the RAAF. The Executive and Wark agreed and Payne finally joined the Administrative and Special Duties Branch of the RAAF in August 1942.

Although not happy with his occupation in the Air Force, Payne remained there for the duration. On discharge, he resumed service with the Division on 1 April 1946, at the University of Western Australia. However, in January 1947, he accepted a position with the British Colonial Service in Tanganyika, East Africa, and duly resigned from CSIR. In 1950 he returned to Australia to take up a position in the Tasmanian Government Chemical Laboratories, and in late 1951 moved back to Perth to the Western Australian Government Chemical Laboratories. After 17 years as the Chief of the Mineral Division he retired in 1975.

Minerals Utilization Section team — winners of the Intersection Athletics. Back row from left: Ted Pilkington, Bob Croft, Roy Pugh, John Moresby, Ken Bridgeford and Tom Wallace (married Joyce Mather). Front row from left: Fay Dunstan, Joyce Mather, Joy Bear, Margaret Ellis.

Other members of the wartime team were Ted Pilkington and Ian Kraitzer. Although Pilkington started work in the short-lived Analytical Section of DIC, he soon joined the Minerals Section and undertook a lengthy survey of methods for the recovery of germanium from flue dusts.²⁶ In the 1960s he returned to chemical analysis and, over the years, achieved a worldwide reputation in the field. Ian Kraitzer played an important role in the early work on the mineral sands; eventually, he became the only member of the wartime group at Fishermen's Bend to permanently leave CSIR/CSIRO and take up a career in industry.

After World War 2 came the period of postwar reconstruction and various new projects (e.g. the recovery of gold, the utilisation of pyrite and the production of metals from their ores) were suggested to the Advisory Council. However, most of the projects initiated during the war years had developed considerable momentum and major changes in direction were slow to come.

Funds at this time were also scarce and new appointments were few and far between, with only five research officer appointments up to 1950. Two of these were to Dr Wylie's ‘rare earth’ group — Tom O'Donnell in 1947–48 and Ron Vickery in 1949–50. O’Donnell later left for a university appointment and eventually became Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Melbourne. Vickery left in 1953 to work in the USA. Two other new appointments in the 1947–48 year were of historic importance in that both men went on to become Chiefs of the Division of Mineral Chemistry. They were Ivan Newnham and David Koch.

Newnham gave notice early in his career of his potential, both as a scientist and a negotiator, when he successfully developed and sold to the National Distillers Products Corporation of USA a process for separating zirconium and hafnium (see ‘Beach Sands’ Projects). This achievement won him the first two of many honours — the Waverley Gold Medal (1957) and an MBE (1959).

Koch took up his appointment in Western Australia and stayed on there for some years to work with Professor Bayliss on the processing of Lake Campion alunite resource. This work earned him one of the first PhDs awarded by the University of WA.²⁷ As discussed above, the project is also notable as an early example of cooperative research in the minerals field between CSIR and other institutions.

In 1947–48, James Hayton was appointed to study analytical methods for uranium and uranium minerals; he was located in Adelaide at the School of Mines with Trevor Dalwood, eventually joining the SA Department of Mines team that worked on the Radium Hill project.

Early days — the so-called ‘Wet Room’ for mineral processing. Laboratory Assistant, Joy Bear, at work.

The scientists appointed during the first decade of the embryonic Division were to distinguish themselves as leaders of research in their fields. In particular, of those who made their careers in CSIRO, Wylie, Wadsley and Scott rose to be Chief Research Scientists — the pinnacle of a scientific career in CSIRO — while, as already indicated, Newnham and Koch transferred to Management and successively followed Thomas as Chief of the Division. Newnham went on to become Director of the CSIRO Minerals Research Laboratories and subsequently the first Director of the CSIRO Institute of Energy and Earth Resources.

The endeavours of these scientists were greatly assisted by able technical and support staff. Some of these young people John Moresby, Joy Bear, Charles Alsope, Peter Davey, Jack Asker, Hedley Hull, and Lionel Rogers, were to contribute to the work of the Section/Division over many years. In view of the impediments that existed over many years to the advancement of women in CSIR/CSIRO,¹⁷ Joy Bear was to have a remarkable career in Mineral Chemistry. Appointed as a junior laboratory assistant in 1944, she obtained her basic scientific qualifications by part-time study at the Melbourne Technical College. Following several years post-graduate experience in the UK she rejoined the Section and was eventually reclassified to the research staff. In later years she was awarded the degree of Doctor of Applied Science for her work in the Division, and in 1986 was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for services to science, particularly in the field of mineral chemistry. In 1988, she received the Leighton Memorial Medal — the Royal Australian Chemical Institute's premier award and the first woman to be so honoured.

By the beginning of the second decade, Thomas was already advocating that the Mineral Utilization Section should be split off from the Division of Industrial Chemistry as a separate Division. However, it was to be another decade before these proposals for the formation of an autonomous Minerals Division were to be put into effect by the CSIRO Executive.

In the early years of the second decade, the work of the Minerals Section was concerned mainly with uranium extraction, ‘beach sands’ chemistry and the concluding stages of the dry cell project.

Two appointments were made to the uranium group in 1950–51, John Almond (who later went on to manage the Radium Hill processing plant at Port Pirie, SA) and Philip Gray (who returned to the UK in 1955 to work at the Imperial Smelting Furnace plant at Avonmouth). Only another eight research appointments were made up to 1959, most of which represented replacement of departing staff. Mention should be made of David Scaife and Alan Turnbull (commenced during 1953–54) who benefited soon after their appointment by a policy decision to allow 2 years overseas study leave. After gaining PhD degrees, both men returned to CSIRO and continued in their research fields at Mineral Chemistry for another 30 years. Other appointees towards the end of the decade were Keith Cathro and Harry Gardner who were still with the Division in 1987, and Alan Reid (commenced during 1958–59) who became Director of the Institute of Energy and Earth Resources of CSIRO in 1984.

In 1953, a major sponsored project was started, initially with the Chemical Engineering Section of DIC. This involved the sulfation roasting of copper concentrates in the first sizeable pilot plant set up at Fishermen's Bend. Dr Allan Walkley's group subsequently took charge of the leaching of the calcines and the electrolytic recovery of copper, thus becoming partners in the project (see ‘Copper’).

Also in 1953, the Division was visited by Professor Frank Forward from the University of British Columbia who gave an inspiring talk on the new processing technique of ‘pressure hydrometallurgy’. This so fascinated Philip Gray that he borrowed a small autoclave and successfully used it for oxidative pressure-leaching of Rum Jungle sulfidic uranium ore. Subsequently, he wrote an article entitled ‘Acid Pressure Digestion of Metal Ores’ which won first prize in the ‘Science and Industry’ competition and was published in the journal Research.²⁸ Gray ultimately held the high office of President of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy during 1984.

His successor at Fishermen's Bend was Ian Warren (1955–58) who continued the study of pressure leaching as applied to copper and iron sulfides, at the same time making significant improvements to autoclave design. His paper on ‘The Generation of Sulfuric Acid from Pyrite’ has become one of the classics in this field.²⁹ Warren went to Canada in 1958 to study for his PhD and stayed there, eventually becoming Professor of Metallurgy at the University of British Columbia.

The early work of Gray and Warren began a tradition in pressure hydrometallurgy applications to mineral processing which has continued in the Minerals Divisions of CSIRO to this day. One such application was the ‘CSIRO Acid Alumina Process’, developed by Scott and his colleagues from 1959 onwards. A paper on the process was greeted with great enthusiasm at the AIME International Symposium on ‘Extractive Metallurgy of Aluminium’ held in New York in February 1962.³⁰ Other important applications were in the acid pressure-leaching of McArthur River lead–zinc concentrates (see The CRL Years, Part 2) and in the production of high-grade magnesia from magnesite ores in the 1980s (see The Institute Years, Part 2).

By the year 1957, the diversity of topics under study in the Minerals Section was well illustrated by the paragraph headings in the Annual Report of DIC. These headings covered the following topics:

• Hydrometallurgy of copper recovery

• Uranium extraction

• Zirconium and hafnium chemistry

• Thorium extraction and purification

• Germanium survey and extraction,

• Graphite chemistry

• Phototropic compounds

• Chemistry and crystallography of chalcogenide systems

• Handling techniques for fluorine and for radioactive materials.

The list indicates the strong emphasis at that time on research related to nuclear materials — uranium (Scott's group), zirconium (Newnham's group) and thorium (Wylie's group). By the early 1950s, Wylie had also developed a substantial interest in the application of radioactivity to the solution of chemical problems and had established a small laboratory to handle radioactive tracer elements. These proved valuable, for instance, in the purification of iodide thorium (see ‘Beach Sands’ Projects).

This involvement in nuclear matters led to the appointment of Scott as an Australian delegate to the 1957 UNESCO Symposium in India, and Wylie and Newnham as Australian delegates to the Second International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva in 1958. Thomas was a member of the Australian Delegation to the First International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva in 1955. Of the 1958 Conference, Wylie comments, ‘The most lavish exhibition of all time was staged conjointly; we had never seen the products of Super-Power rivalry’.

Another undertaking commenced in 1957 was an investigation of the various methods of extracting lithium salts from spudomene, a silicate of aluminium and lithium. The study, sponsored by Western Mining Corporation, was to indicate the method of production most likely to be applicable, economically, to Western Australian ore, and to assess the potentialities of the lithium industry.³¹

Our story thus far tells of the scientists who came together during the two decades following the formation of the Minerals Utilization Section. Although it also touches briefly on significant projects with which these people were associated, it gives little appreciation of the quality of the work that over the years developed the reputation of the Section and that was to provide in 1959 the scientific foundation for the establishment of the Division of Mineral Chemistry. To gain this insight, the following selected projects must be reviewed in more detail. These projects are covered by the following segments:

• Australian Heavy Mineral Beach Sands Projects, including Rare Earth Oxides and Fluorides, and Titanium Projects

• Nuclear Materials, including Uranium Projects – 1, and Thorium and Zirconium (derived from beach sands minerals)

• Copper – Hydrometallurgy of Copper.

Research Projects – 1