PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION B. 55 



Coal Company, who intend, as soon as the requisite etiuipment 

 is available, to spend £150,0000 on the erection at Dundee of a 

 large by-product recovery coking-plant. These schemes are 

 fraught with the greatest importance to the country, because if 

 successful they will doubtless be followed by others, since it is 

 becoming generally realised that the coal by-product industry 

 offers almost illimitable possibilities. 



It is almost certain, for example, that after the war trinitro- 

 toluol, prepared from toluol, a coal-tar derivative, will compete 

 with dynamite as an industrial explosive, just as benzol, another 

 coal by-product, is at the present time successfully competing 

 with petrol in France and Germany. 



Ammoniitw Sulphate. — One of the most important develop- 

 ments that has taken place df recent years in the South African 

 coal industry has been the erection by the Natal Ammonium, 

 Limited, at Alount Ngwibi, near Vryheid in Natal, of a large 

 modern plant of the Mond type for the production of ammonium 

 sulphate. A seam of coal, characterised by containing about 

 2 per cent, of nitrogen, which crops out on the slopes of Mount 

 Ngwibi, affords the basis of the industry. At the present time 

 the output is at the rate of about 250 tons per month, and it is 

 hoped to increase this to 350 tons in the near future. Alost of 

 the ammonium sulphate is exported to Mauritius, ver\ little of 

 this valuable fertiliser being used in South Africa. The indus- 

 try appears to be capable of very considerable expansion, as there 

 are other coals in this and the adjoining districts of Natal which 

 are equally well adapted to the manufacture of ammonium sul- 

 phate. 



Copper. 



Practically the whole of the copper output of the Union, 

 amounting in 1917 to 20,131,614 tons, valued at £1,126,040, 

 comes from the Messina Mine in the Northern Transvaal and 

 the mines of the Cape and Namaqua Copper Companies in Little 

 Namaqualand. None of these mines are equipped for the 

 actual production of the metal, and have hitherto exported all 

 their copper in the form of hand-picked ore, concentrate, and 

 matte. The industry has in consequence received a very serious 

 set-back from the recently published decree of the Ministry of 

 Shipping prohibiting the shipment of copper ore, matte, and 

 concentrate. The Namaqua Copper Company, after nearly 50 

 years oif continuous production, have decided temporarily to close 

 down their mines. The Cape Copper Company are continuing 

 operations, and propose stocking the matte and concentrate pro- 

 duced. The Messina Company, on the other hand, are en- 

 deavouring to obtain equipment to enable them to produce blister 

 copper. In any case, the outlook of the copper mining indus- 

 try was none too bright. In the Namaqualand mines the grade 

 had of recent years fallen to such an extent as to cause the 

 gravest concern ; and at the last annual meeting of the Messina 

 Company shareholders were informed that they had " to con- 



