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A tribute to John Keith Elers Douglas
John Keith Elers Douglas recently retired from active
participation in the activities of the South African Institute of Mining
and Metallurgy after over forty years of diligent and valuable service
to the Institute. This account of his contributions to the mineral
industry and associated organizations is presented as a tribute to all
his hard work and dedication.
Early Years
Keith was born in
the shadow of the headgear at the great ERPM mine in Boksburg on 3rd
April, 1918. Later his father was a mining commissioner in the Pilgrims
Rest-Barberton district, and it is therefore not surprising that the
young Keith soon developed an interest in mining. As a result of visits
with his father to the many small mines of the eastern Transvaal, he
grew to love the scenic beauty of the area, and one of his great
interests is still to visit the game reserves and to go on hiking trails
in this lovely part of South Africa.
After he matriculated from
the Christian Brothers College, Pretoria, in 1935, he, not surprisingly,
opted for mining as a career, and in 1939 he graduated with a degree in
mining and metallurgy from the University of the Witwatersrand. In that
year he was awarded the Chamber of Mines' gold medal and scholarship for
postgraduate study but, before taking up his scholarship, he joined the
metallurgical department of Rand Mines to acquire practical experience.
On Crown Mines he had his first experience of shiftwork as an operator
on the reduction works-an experience that helped to develop a sympathy
and understanding for the kind of people he was destined to be
associated with for most of his working life.
World War II
interrupted this training, and he was released to join the South African
Engineering Corps., with whom he saw servioe in Abyssinia, Syria, North
Africa, and Italy. The army, assuming that, because he had worked on the
mines, he must know something about surveying, posted him to a survey
company. In 1942 he was commissioned and posted to the railway
battalion, whose job it was to construct the supply lines. With the
battalion, he learnt something about the construction of bridges and
tunnelling, and a great deal about handling men.
Uranium, Lime,
and Ferrochromium After the war, Keith took up the Chamber's scholarship
and spent a year in the U.S.A. studying some of the latest developments
in mining and metallurgy under the guidance of the Colorado School of
Mines. He submitted the results of this study in a thesis to the
University of the Witwatersrand, and was awarded a master's degree in
engineering. He rejoined Rand Mines and, after working in the reduction
plants of various mines of the Group, was seconded in 1949 to the
uranium programme, taking charge of one of the two pilot plants that had
been established to test the uranium process. The knowledge and
experience he gained there were to stand him in good stead in subsequent
years since this pilot-plant work provided the basis for the design of
the uranium plants that were constructed subsequently.
However,
before these plants were commissioned, Keith was appointed manager of
the Northern Lime works at Taungs. Being well aware of the large amounts
of lime that would be needed by the uranium industry, he soon realized
that the reserves of limestone at Taungs were insufficient to support
the expansions that would be necessary. Fortunately, Rand Mines'
geologists had discovered a large deposit of good limestone near
Silverstreams in the northern Cape, and, after a detailed study had been
made of lime plants in the U.S.A. and Europe, a modern lime plant was
built to process the material from the new deposit (1954).
In
1955, Rand Mines recalled Keith to take over a Consulting Metallurgist
of the Group. This was an interesting period of his career since, apart
from the many developments in the uranium industry in which he was
involved, he was responsible, with Drs F. G. Hill and W. Bleloch, for
the development of a new ferrochromium process based on Transvaal
chromites. The research work conducted by these three researchers formed
the foundation on which the present huge ferrochromium and
stainless-steel industry in the eastern Transvaal is based.
In
1963, Keith was appointed an Assistant Manager of Rand Mines, being
responsible for the development work in the Group. In the meantime, his
old love, The Northern Lime Company, was growing apace. In 1968, he was
given full responsibility for the development of this company, being
appointed Managing Director, but the phenomenal expansion of the company
soon called for his full-time attention. Today, the limeworks of this
company at Lime Acres is one of the largest and most efficient in the
world. He retired as executive Chairman and Managing Director in 1979,
but is still on the board in an advisory capacity.
Keith has
always been interested in research, and is still a member of the
Technical Advisory Committee of the National Institute for Metallurgy.
S A I M M Interests
His association with the South African
Institute of Mining and Metallurgy started in his student days when he
was awarded a book prize for his thesis at the University. He joined the
Institute as a student in 1938; he was elected a member of Council in
1958, became President in 1969, and was made an honorary Life Fellow in
1978.
As one might expect, his Presidential Address was entitled
'Lime in South Africa'. Published in the August 1969 issue of the
Journal, it is still well worth reading as the synopsis suggests:
Lime
is the most widely used and the cheapest chemical alkali known to man and virtually every product we use or eat has required lime in some
phase of its manufacture. Its use goes back to the earliest days of man
and many ancient buildings and writings bear testimony to this. The
manufacture of lime involves the quarrying, crushing, and screening of
limestone, and the burning of the sized stone in kilns, of which there
are several types. The earliest kilns were of very crude design, and
only in comparatively recent times have large-capacity, automated,
scientifically controlled kilns been developed. The history of the South
African lime industry is largely that of the three main lime companies
and their story is told briefly. No other material used in industry has
a greater diversity of uses or more varied functions, and lime has
applications in most South African industries. The main applications are
in the production of gold and uranium, iron, steel and ferrochromium,
carbide, sugar, and paper, and in water treatment, agriculture, and
building. The Republic is well endowed with high-quality limestone, and
the conclusion is drawn that many other -minerals will have been
exhausted before we run out of the limestone with which to process them.
The expansion of the lime industry in the past kept pace
with the requirements of industry, and the future demand is expected to
grow in parallel with the growth of these industries. Since the war,
this growth has been phenomenal and, with our expanding populations and
abundance of raw materials, it should continue in the years ahead.
Limiting factors are the shortage of skilled labour and the distance
from export markets. Confidence is expressed that the challenges of the
future will be met, and that the lime industry will continue to make an
important contribution to the growth and prosperity of South Africa.
Keith was Honorary Treasurer from 1973 for six years during the period
that he served on Council as a Past President. He retired from the
Council only at the end of 1980, when he left Johannesburg to live at Plettenberg Bay.
Home Life
Keith is married, and has three
married sons and seven grandchildren. He has always been keen on sport,
and particularly enjoys a game of golf and hiking on trails. His hobbies
are painting, mainly in water colours, and he enjoys fishing and
reading. In Johannesburg he was an active Rotarian, being involved in a
great deal of social and charitable work.
We wish Keith a
well-earned rest, and look forward to seeing him from time to time when
he deserts his quiet pursuits at Plettenberg Bay to attend to his
earlier interests of research, lime, and the South African Institute of
Mining and Metallurgy.
Note:
Keith may have died in 2010. He may have been the son of
John Perdric Elers Douglas (1888-1964) and Kathleen Mary Cartan
(1887-1963), who had a daughter, Kathleen (Bobby) Douglas and a son
Michael Edward Elers Douglas (1920-1992)
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