42 I'KKSIDENTIAL ADDKKSS SECTION B. 



THE INFLUENCE OF MINERAL DEPOSITS ON THE 

 DEVELOPMENT OF A YOUNG COUNTIiY. 



BY 



E. T. Mellor, D.Sc, F.G.S., F.K.S.S.Af., M.I.M.M. 



Presidential Address to Section B, delivered Jithj 11, 1922. 



To find, the preparation of a presidential address a niucli mure 

 difficult task than the writing ot an ordinary scientific paper on 

 a well-defined special subject is probably a common experience. 



A very usual course in addresses of this kind appears to be 

 to make a general review of the subject in which onu is 

 particularly interested, and perhaps to forecast future develop- 

 ments, or, in the case of a section like this, participated in by the 

 followers of various allied branches of science, to consider the 

 relationships of such branches to one another and to science in, 

 general. Previous presidents of " Section B " have, however, 

 quite recenth' covered both these fields. 



Progress in many branches of science during the past few 

 chaotic years would be a somewhat difficult thing to gauge, 

 although I am inclined myself to place a verj' high value on the 

 results of the work done by scientific men during the recent war, 

 along the many new channels into which their activities were 

 forced by the stress of exceptional circumstances, in a way that 

 nothing but a great M'ar could have brought about. When these 

 results can be fully worked out in all their developments, 1 

 believe we shall find that greater progress has been made as a 

 consequence of those special conditions than we can at present 

 realize. 



Some of the more usual lines on which addresses of this 

 kind are written, being, therefore, excluded, I have chosen as n\\ 

 subject one which 1 hope may be found of fairly genernl interest, 

 while at the same time one with which mx own particular line 

 of scientific work has brought me into continual contact in the 

 past few years, during which I have been more especially 

 associated with the economic applications of geology. 



Residing in the midst of one of the largest mining fields 

 in the world, and, at the same time, being brought continually 

 into contact with mining enterprises of every grade of develop- 

 ment and importance, from the earliest stages of prospecting a 

 potential future m.ine to a full-grown mining field like the Wit- 

 watcrsrand. the relationship of the mineral deposits of a country 

 to the cominimity as a whole, and tlie great vanety of conditions 

 imder which mining enterprises take their origin and are carried 

 to fruition, has, in my own experience, proved auite as h\W of 

 interest; ns the more tranquil pursuit of purely scientific lines of 

 investigation. 



