SixTioN B.— CHEMISTRY. C.EOLOGY, METALLURGY. 

 MINERALOGY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



rKHSiOKNT ov THE SECTION. — Professor J. A. Wilkinson 

 M.A., F.C.S. 



TUESDAY, JULY 4. 



L 



The President delivered the following address: — 



The eht)ice oi a subject for a sectional address is normally 

 fraught with sonic difficult), hut this year your Council speci- 

 tically recjuestcd contributions from its members dealing with 

 (i) the organisation of the Union for the fuller development 

 of its industries and resources, and (2) the necessity for research 

 w^ork with a view to the estal)lishinent of new industries and 

 the development of those already existing. On glancing at 

 the list of papers to be submitted to this Section, it was evident 

 that none of the authors had attemped to deal with either of 

 these subjects, and hence I felt that the path of duty compelled 

 their treatment in some degree. It will therefore be my endea- 

 vour in this address to attempt to deal from that point of view 

 with the matters with which I am mostly concerned, namely, 

 the necessity, the organisation, and the development of chemical 

 industry and research, using these terms in their widest sense. 



South Africa is a country which has hitherto existed, and 

 still does at the present moment exist, on its rich stock of raw 

 materials. Its exports, in addition to the raw products of agri- 

 culture, are chiefly metals, crude and unrefined, and diamonds 

 uncut. Their extent and relation to other exports are easily 

 read in Figures I and 2 derived from the official data published 

 by the Union Government. It is there seen that the chief 

 chemical industry is the preparation of raw gold bullion from 

 the quartzitic ore of the Transvaal. This is carried out in three 

 operations — the first being fine pulverisation by mechanical 

 means ; the second, amalgamation with mercury ; and the third, 

 solution of the unamalgamated gold .still remaining by means 

 of sodium cyanide solution followed by reprecipitation with 

 excess of zinc shavings and final treatment of the metal, so as 

 to get rid of as much of the base metal present as possii/le 

 before pouring into commercial bars. The major portion o^f 

 the plant necessary for these operations consists of iron and 

 steel, and the raw materials for their manufacture exist in com- 

 parative abundance in the Transvaal. A thorough and .scien- 

 tifically complete investigation of these has not yet been under- 

 taken, but in the interests of the country at large and not merely 

 of the metal industry this should, I venture to state, be one of 

 the first, since iron is the most important necessity for industrial 

 progress of every kind. The normal value of the iron and 

 steel imports into this country annually is almost one million 

 pounds, and with an ex])anding ])opulation this must rapidly 



