14 
to bo sought in areas of pyritous shales or in metalliferous districts, 
particularly in those parts of them where pyrites was largely de- 
veloped. Following this argument, and favoured by fortune, 
deposits of alunite. were in a short time located at Kanowna, 
Wallangie, Northampton and Kavensthorpe. Of these localities 
Kanowna soon proved itself capable of yielding large commercial 
supplies at a. reasonable cost. At about the same time alunite 
was found for the first time in South Australia, at Camekalinga 
and Warner town. The first part of the problem was thus solved. 
I here remained to be worked out methods of treatment which 
would yield, 1st, a water’ soluble but possibly impure material 
suitable for agricultural purposes: 2nd, a pure or almost pure salt 
suitable for industrial or therapeutical, use. .Roth have been accom- 
plished, though the ta.sk was rendered difficult by the fact that 
very little was known about the chemistry of alunite, and what 
little had been published had been proved to be faulty. The de- 
tails of the investigations have been laid before you during the 
year. The results obtained were briefly, that (I.) a suitable water 
soluble fertiliser was obtained from the mineral either by roast- 
ing or by mixing the raw mineral with a suitable amount of caustic 
or slaked lime : (2) a sa.lt suitable for industrial purposes was ob- 
tained by roasting and extracting with hot water, and then 
crystallising* 
The iron compound homologous to alunite is jarosite, a mineral 
considered up till quite recently to be of rare occurrence, and no- 
where previously known to occur in sufficient quantities to be of 
commercial .importance. The only known Australian locality was 
Cog Jin, in South Australia.. It was obvious, however, that if a 
sufficiently large deposit of the mineral could be located, and if its 
chemical properties should resemble those of alunite, a second 
source of industrial potash would he available. Diligent search 
has led to the detection oi this mineral in Western Australia at 
Nullagine, Whim Creek, Northampton, Love’s Find, Upper Kalgan 
Kiver and Kavensthorpe. At several of these localities, particu- 
larly the last, there appear to be commercial quantities. Quite 
recently following the publicity given to jarosite in this St ate, large 
deposits of the mineral hav e been shown to occur near Anglesoa in 
Victoria. 
Nothing was previously known of the chemistry of jarosite 
but researches now well advanced have proved that (1) a suitable 
water soluble fertiliser is obtainable by roasting the mineral, or 
by mixing it with a suitable proportion of lime, or by extracting 
it with lime water: (2) a salt suitable for industrial purposes is 
obtainable by roasting, extracting with hot water and crystallising. 
The work already done on alunite and jarosite make it certain 
that in any serious emergency Australia can supply itself with 
potash. 
