Frank Pollard B.Sc., M. Sc.

Frank was born on 17 February, 1916 in Trelewis, Glamorganshire, a small mining village about 30 km north of Cardiff. He gained his School Certificate in 1931, the Higher School Certificate in 1933, the Higher National Certificate in 1942, a B.Sc. Degree (London) in 1943, and his M.Sc. (London) in 1945. On leaving school he got a job as an apprentice in the Research Department Laboratory of the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company. That laboratory was engaged in many aspects of research including coal preparation and uses for by-products from their coke ovens plant. 

During the war years Frank became chemist, then Chief Chemist, on a plant making a smokeless fuel for domestic use called "Phurnacite". After the war, between 1945 and 1947, Frank was co-opted to the Control Commission for Germany, serving in the Coke Department of the North German Coal Control. The work was to re-apply some sort of system to the much battered coke oven industry, largely in the Ruhr district. 

Back in the UK, he worked with the NCB until, in 1949, he was appointed as the Deputy Area Chief Scientist in the NCB No. 4 Area laboratory, at a place called Mountain Ash. Apart from coal analysis, and quality control for 10 washeries, the work included the analyses of mine airs, airborne dusts and roadway dusts. 

In 1959, having organised the NCB laboratories to his satisfaction, Frank moved to Australia with his wife Lola, where Frank took a position with ACAR (later ACIRL) as District Chief Scientist at Maitland. Frank then moved to the North Ryde lasboratory where he assumed the position of Deputy Director of Research, when Arthur Hams was appointed Director in November, 1960. Frank modestly states that "It was under A. H. Hams that the company grew spectacularly. Wider fields of research were undertaken and considerably higher and more advanced facilities and standards were obtained and applied." Frank held this position until 1981 when, in his own words, he retired "with great relief". 

One of the Senior Chemists who served under Frank offers these words on his ACIRL period: "Those of us who worked with Frank know that his achievements were significant, even if done without fuss or favour, and always with his characteristic, wry Welsh wit. The spectacular growth to which he refers must in considerable measure be attributed to his input - for his organisation of the laboratories group, his part in defining and managing the research projects, and his work for Standards Australia. Arthur Hams had an exceedingly capable and supportive adjutant indeed. Although Frank's contribution to the growth of ACIRL may not be detailed in the written record, his unique and enduring presence is well recorded in the memories of all those of us who were fortunate enough to have worked with Frank in that time." 

Frank has held memberships with the Institution of Chemical Engineers, the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Institute of Fuel, the Coke Oven Managers' Association (of the UK) - for more than 50 years - and was a founding member of the Coal Preparation Society. As well as being a member of the founding committee, Frank made an outstanding contribution to the NSW Coal Preparation Society. He was Treasurer for 9 years and Chairman for 2 years. As well he was a member of the organising committees, and Treasurer, for the 1976 International Coal Preparation Congress (Sydney) and the First Australian Coal Preparation Conference (1981, Newcastle). Frank was a lecturer at many Society Courses and undertook the task of drafting the first Society textbook, namely "An Introduction to Coal Preparation" (published 1985, reprinted 1992).

Jim Donnelly

Jim's working career of over 50 years spanned a period of great development in coal preparation, and Jim has been a significant contributor. All who came in contact with Jim during this period were impressed with his enthusiasm and work ethic, which continued up until the very day he retired on his 70th birthday. 

Like many in the coal industry, Jim's training, and first contact with the coal industry, came through BHP. From 1950 to 1960, Jim worked at the Newcastle Steelworks, firstly as a trainee chemist/chemical engineer, and then as a technical assistant/foreman, in the coke ovens, coal preparation plant and by-products operation. From 1960-1972, he worked with a number of engineering companies that supplied equipment and designed/constructed coal preparation plants; these included A E Goodwin, Thomson & Carroll, United Development Corporation and Sala Australia. He was involved with projects at Coal Cliff, Moura, Lithgow, South Bulli, Wollondilly, Gretley, Avon, Yellow Rock, and Liddell State. Jim then returned to operations as the Manager of the TPM Moura Coal Preparation Plant (1972-75), and during this time the first dense medium cyclone plant in Australia was installed. For the period 1975-84, he was Manager Coal Preparation & Marketing for the Peko-Wallsend Coal Division and in this role he had technical responsibility for all coal preparation activities, including operations, upgrades and new plant construction, as well as attending to technical marketing, quality control and coal supply logistics. From 1984, Jim operated his own engineering and design consultancy - James C Donnelly & Associates. Some notable achievements were the design/engineering of plants such as Rix's Creek, United and Burton. In 1999, James C Donnelly & Associates merged with QCC, and he subsequently retired in 2001. 

Jim has made an outstanding contribution to the Coal Preparation Society. In the early days of the NSW Society, he was on the Committee (1967-72), serving as secretary from 1969-71. He rejoined the committee in 1977 and was Chairman from 1981-83; overall Jim was on the NSW committee for 11 years. He lectured at Introductory and Advanced Courses from 1976 to 1996. During his period as Chairman, the NSW Branch was incorporated and the first introductory textbook was produced. However, Jim's greatest legacy to the Society was his leadership in organising the First Australian Coal Preparation Conference in Newcastle, 1981. It was a resounding success and has set the standard for every conference thereafter. Australian Coal Preparation Conferences are a feature of society activities providing great opportunities for technical and social exchanges, and the proceedings are a valuable source of technical information.

Stuart Nicol

Stuart started life as a physical chemist, receiving Science Honours and Masters Degrees from the University of London. He followed this up with a PhD from the University of Sydney. After a few years working for Unilever Research in UK, he returned to Australia in 1970 to take up a position in the Minerals Group at BHP Central Research Laboratory in Newcastle. This inevitably led Stuart to the coal industry and from around 1974 until he left CRL in 1993 he was actively involving in coal preparation R&D, and supporting BHP's other mineral and steel making interests. He progressed to the position of Raw Materials Research Manager and made contributions to many of BHP's coal developments including Gregory, Boggabri, Saxonvale, Stockton Borehole and the Illawarra Collieries. From 1993 until 2003, Stuart has been the principal of Novatech Consulting Pty Ltd providing advice to coal, mineral and research projects. Through Advanced Separation Engineering, he has introduced the TBS (teetered bed separator) technology to the Australian Coal Industry. 

Stuart has an international reputation for his coal preparation research work, in particular froth flotation, fine coal processing and dewatering. In recognition of his work, he was the first Australian invited to give the Arthur le Page Memorial Lecture in 1990.

His contribution to the Society has been outstanding. It started back in the late 1970's when he joined Jim Donnelly's organising committee for the First Australian Coal Preparation Conference in 1981. Stuart was not only on the Technical Subcommittee for the First Conference, but continued to serve on conference technical subcommittees all the way through to the Eighth Conference in 2000. Stuart joined the committee of the NSW Coal Preparation Society in 1982 and remained a member until 2001. He served as a Chairman in 1988 and 1989 and was Education Chairman for 5 years. While chairman of the NSW Society, he was an active part of a group that set of the Australian Coal Preparation Society in 1988, and was the founding Chairman. He served on the Australian Society board until 2000, and undertook the role of Chairman again in 1995 and 1996.

In 1990, Stuart became the Australian representative on the International Organising Committee for the International Coal Preparation Congress and was instrumental in Australia being awarded the 13th ICPC, that was held in Brisbane in 1998. For this event Stuart was Chairman of the IOC, and served on the Australian organising and technical committees. He stood down as IOC delegate in 2000. 

Stuart has also assisted in many other facets of the life of the Society, including presenting numerous papers at meetings and conferences, lecturing/directing at advanced and introductory coal preparation courses, authoring the advanced monograph on Fine Coal Beneficiation and "The Principles of Coal Preparation", and organising technical seminars. Stuart has made an outstanding contribution to the Australian Coal Preparation Society and the NSW Branch for a continuous period of over 20 years. In many ways he encouraged the technical vitality of the Society and we are already the poorer for his reduced activity in Society events.

Roger Gadsden

Born in Sydney in 1923, Roger joined the staff of AIS Port Kembla steel plant in 1940 as a trainee metallurgist. He gained the Diploma of Metallurgy ASTC in 1945 and remained with BHP until retiring in 1982.

After some years as Coke Ovens Chemist, there followed supervisory experience in coke ovens operation areas. Both NSW steel plants were unique in that central coal preparation plants were sited at the works, as part of coke making. In 1956 he was seconded to establish programmes to improve coke quality. This decade saw the start of the mineral boom in Australia and the rapid increase world wide in the size of iron blast furnaces, demanding much higher standards of technology. This, combined with BHP's position as producer and consumer of coal and iron ore, opened a career in technical development of blast furnace feed materials, including ores and sintering. Roger established technical research facilities at the Port Kembla plant and built up liaison with fundamental researchers at BHP-CRL, CSIRO, ACIRL and university staff at Wollongong, to all of whom he was very grateful.

Coal preparation (washing, blending and crushing) fell within Roger's ambit and expansion of plants at Port Kembla and Corrimal Colliery in the sixties, including small coal cleaning and flotation introduced him directly to the sharp end of process design, particularly living with the consequences. He avoided this after selecting processes and equipment for the heavy medium Wongawilli Seam washery at Port Kembla by retiring before commissioning.

Roger gained BSc from University of NSW in 1961. He was a Fellow of The AusIMM and held office in its Illawarra branch.

Recognising the paucity of mineral dressing knowledge in the coal industry in the sixties he cooperated with Dr Russ Burdon to organise a lecture series on the subject at the Wollongong College of UNSW, the popularity of which contributed to Dr Burdon initiating the formation of the NSW Coal Preparation Society.

Roger was one of the five founding committee members and succeeded Dr Burdon as its second Chairman (and its third, having overlooked elections). His four stints as Director of its residential Advanced Course were personal highlights, not only from a technical standpoint, him being a sober type. He was associated with the planning and conduct of several NSWCPS conferences.

The continued development of the Society has been an enduring satisfaction to Roger. He now considers the original concept of an inclusive body regardless of qualification to be outdated, and the steady encouragement of higher individual standards, along with courses and publications to achieve them, as more appropriate.

On retirement Roger undertook a study at UOW of the crystallite structure of coke, gaining MSc. He adheres to a used-by age of 70 but interest lingers on. 

  

Russell Burdon

Ken Butcher

FROM: Chairman's Dinner - Hunter Valley Gardens, 3 Aug 2002

It is my pleasure to help confer a life membership to one of our members. I have known this person from the early seventies and later on as a work colleague.

This person has always been a stalwart of the coal preparation society and a true believer in the cause of our society. Obviously he is well known to everyone Mr. Chairman am I allowed to say his name?, NO - only his initials, okay his initials are KEN BUTCHER. Only kidding his initials are KGB Kenneth George Butcher.

No wonder BMCH never won any work in Russia [they had the KGB working for them].

In his early days, he was always accompanied by the late BOB BOOTH . They were always together. Did anyone do any work for Clutha in those days? They were inseparable. In those days, no one took any notice of two guys hanging around together, nowadays you would be on your guard. We all know BOB was a real "social bee".

Our records do not indicate when Ken joined the society but we assume it was around 1970. That's when he started to attend the meetings.

In 1974 Ken became the Secretary for the society, but for some reason, he only did it the one year, and in 1975, he became assistant Social Secretary - [mind you he had good training for this, from BOB BOOTH]. He became assistant to the Social Secretary [who was none other than DAVE BENNETT - as if Dave Bennett would need any assistance organizing a social do].

The early Committees had something going because as well as a normal Secretary on the committee they had TWO Social Secretaries. So we have Ken and Dave organizing the social calendar - now we know where the term " LIKELY LADS " came from.

In 1976 Ken moved up the ladder to Secretary and in 1977 and 1978 was an active member on the Committee.

Then came his big break in1979. The record doesn't show what happened but I can imagine that Dave Bennett [ who was the incoming Chairman] asked Ken if he wanted a top job and being Ken he always liked a top job, so he said YES , and Ken became Chairman - Dave Bennett moved out of the industry.

So in 1979 and 1980 Ken was our Chairman. Then came a bigger break. The society was growing larger and larger and after the success of the International Conference in 1976, the Committee decided to hold its own Coal Preparation Conference. So in 19981, Ken was our first "CHAIRMAN" to host THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN COAL PREPARATION SOCIETY held in NEWCASTLE.

He then stepped down from the Committee and, as he says, made room for the younger ones. Ken stayed in our industry until his retirement last year. And finally it was Ken who encouraged me to join the committee in 1985. As I said at the beginning, he was always a stalwart of the society

Ken, - CONGRATULATIONS on becoming a LIFE MEMBER of our Society.

David Johns

George Edwards

George began his professional career at Port Kembla Steel Works with BHP, as have many of us, where he worked in coal and coke research while undertaking his degree in metallurgy at the University of New South Wales. He has pursued this line of endeavour ever since.

George had the uncanny gift of being outstanding at what ever he did and it was no surprise that he should move to the Joint Coal Board where his skills and knowledge were displayed on a wider horizon. He broadened his perspective with the completion of a Management Certificate at Sydney Technical College and in due course, added to his scrap-book, the position of ‘Chief of Marketing’ at the JCB, where he was instrumental in generating, for the first time, a compendium of coal quality data which serves today as a comprehensive and reliable reference manual of coal seam quality data. During this time he undertook a high profile marketing role to promote Australian coals in the international market.

Throughout this time he was shaping the infant beginnings of the Coal Preparation Society of New South Wales in his roles of Secretary and Chairman. This work was crucial, as a dedicated committee struggled with scant resources and even fewer

funds. Nevertheless, through his leadership and the high regard in which he was held, a respected society was born. In his role as the Society representative on the International Coal Preparation Congress Committee he presented an overwhelming argument, for Australia to host the highly successful Seventh International Coal Preparation Congress in Sydney in 1976. Under his chairmanship this congress was remarkable in several ways – it was the first time the congress had been held outside the northern hemisphere and it set a new high standard by which following congresses have been measured ever since. It was during this time that I worked closely with him and I observed his drive, planning ability and execution of a massive undertaking. He was generous with his time and used his professional contacts at industry and government levels for the advancement of society objectives.

It was not surprising that Jack Bennett, who was then Chief Executive of Coal and Allied, targeted George and whisked him away to join C&A in a senior marketing role, later to become chief of marketing. George was instrumental in securing new coking coal markets which laid the foundations for the evolution of Hunter Valley No1 and developed steaming coal markets in the power utilities in Europe. The C&A / Ube Industries bond was considered to have been built on the respect earned by George in his dealings with the Japanese and in particular that company.

Yet another coup saw George enticed away to be appointed Chief Executive of the Consolidated Coal Company of USA which made a short foray into the New South Wales coal industry.

In 1985 he incorporated George Edwards Consulting Services Pty. Ltd. which provides consulting services in coal utilization and marketing to clients both here and abroad. This business has been built on expertise and the high personal regard in which he is held in the industry.

George’s contributions have extended beyond his business and this Society. For the sake of brevity I shall touch on a few. He has been a director of Savage Resources Ltd and Sabre Resources NL. He has maintained an active voluntary involvement with Standards Australia where he led in the development of coal testing and coal preparation standards, many of which have been adopted by the International Standards Organization. His work has led to his elevation to Fellow of the Institutes of Energy both in the UK and Australia and to avoid the risk of boredom he served in advisory roles to the School of Mines and the School of Mining Engineering within the University of New South Wales.

George was instrumental in establishing a strong link between this Society and the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in which he served as Sydney Branch Chairman, finally culminating in his election as National President of this august body in 1995.

There is little doubt that the high regard in which this Society is held today, is due in large part to his professional zeal, his foresight and willing service.

John Arnold

John started work doing very basic testing of coal samples from the first drilling program by Utah Development Company at Blackwater in May 1962. From there until 1970, he managed laboratories at Rockhampton, Blackwater Mine and Mackay. Two years as Plant Metallurgist at Goonyella Mine, including commissioning of the Coal Preparation Plant, followed before being transferred to Technical Services in Brisbane as Senior Coal Technologist. For the next twenty seven years, John worked as a coal technologist interacting with geologists, coal preparation engineers, operations personnel, marketing, customers, research groups and others associated with new projects, mine and port operations and expansions.

John retired in 1999 as Manager Coal Technology, having spent the last twelve years providing technical support to marketing.

John was involved in the following industry activities:

• Member Australian Standards Association Sub-Committee MN\1\1 – Coal Evaluation (Since 1976)

• Member Australian Standards Association Sub-Committee MN\1\4 – Sampling of Coal (January 1979 - October 1981)

• Member Australian Standards Association Committee MN\1 – Coal (Representing the Coal Preparation Society of Queensland)

• Assessor (Coal Testing) for The National Association of Testing Authorities.

He was a committee member of the Queensland Branch of the Society from 1979 to 1999.  He was Vice-Chairman for two years, and Branch Chairman in 1983/84 and 1984/85. He was Branch Treasurer from 1986/87 until 1991/92.

He was on the National Committee from 1989 until he retired in 2000, serving as Treasurer from 1992/93. He was on the Committee for the first seven Australian Conferences (1981 - 1995), and was Chairman of the Local Organising Committee and Treasurer for the 13th International Coal Preparation Conference in Brisbane in 1998.

The Society records with sadness John's death on 2 January 2007, at the age of 64.

John was posthumously awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen's Birthday Honours announced on 11 June 2007, the citation reads "For service to the development of the coal industry, particularly through research and education activities, and to the community."
 

Fred Williams' family has had a long association with the coal industry in Queensland. His grandfather, John Wright, was a pioneer of the industry opening a number of mines at Tivoli, near Ipswich during the 1870s.

His own involvement goes back to 1926 when he commenced work with FORRERS PTY LTD, an engineering firm with a close association with the Ipswich coal industry. In 1933, he joined SCOTTS OF IPSWICH and became Chief Engineer in 1939.

In those days, SCOTTS manufactured and supplied a wide range of mineral processing equipment for the coal and sand mining industries. Equipment included conveyors, crushers, vibrating screens, pumps, classifying cyclones, picking belts, Deister tables and dryers.

In 1958, he left SCOTTS to become Surface Superintendent for RHONDDA COLLIERIES PTY LTD. Part of his role was to manage the operation of the Coal Preparation Plant, which in those days involved a Baum Jig/WWC process. Fred retired from Rhondda in 1975.

He was a founding member of the Queensland Society and served on the committee in the early years. He was made a Life Member of the Queensland Society in 199?
 

Michael Williamson

Mike was born on 26 May 1934 in Yorkshire. He studied at the Universities of Sheffield and Leeds, graduating in Fuel Technology with Chemical Engineering and gaining a diploma in Mineral Dressing. He joined the National Coal Board as a Directed Practical Trainee, graduating through the ranks to eventually be Area Coal Preparation Engineer for South Yorkshire, being responsible for the performance of seventeen coal preparation plants that were associated with twenty mines. During this time he worked at Manvers Central Coal Preparation Plant as Assistant Manager and at Cortonwood Colliery as Plant Manager of the first full dense medium coal preparation plant in the United Kingdom.

Mike has played a very significant role both in the Society and in the coal preparation industry in Australia for over a quarter of a century. He moved to Australia in 1976 to join Utah Development Corp. where he assisted with the design and engineering of Norwich Park preparation plant. In 1978, he joined Huston Oil & Gas who held the Oaky Creek lease. Then, in 1981, he moved to MIM with the project and was responsible for the Oaky Creek plant design – original capacity 600 t/h (upgraded without significant modifications to run at 1350 t/h). He was subsequently appointed Chief Coal Preparation Engineer for the MIM Coal Division and undertook technical marketing support roles. In 1994, Mike retired from MIM at age 60 and consulted for the next 10 years.

Mike’s participation in Society official duties can be summarised as follows:
• 1977–1983 was Vice-Chairman, Chairman & Committee member for 2 years each (in that order) of the then Qld Society and
• Again in 1989/90 on the committee of the Qld Branch of the Australian Society
• 1980 – represented the Qld Society in organising the First Australian Coal Preparation Conference In Newcastle (with Arthur Le Page, Arthur King and John Arnold)
• 1983/5/8/91 – on the technical committee 2nd to 5th Conferences
• 1985 – delivered the summary of papers at the 3rd Conference in Wollongong.

Mike’s Society supporting roles have included:
• 1976 – Mike contributed to first coarse coal section notes for the Modern Coal Preparation Course (with Ken Bateman).
• Substituted at very short notice (same day) when Ken Bateman became unavailable lecture at the first Course in 1976
• Continued to present the coarse coal segment of the Modern Coal Preparation Course, almost continually, until the Monograph became available in 1994
• Since then has filled in, when required by the course convener, and presented the Coal Preparation Engineer segment in recent years
• Has completed a revision of the Dense Medium Coarse Coal Cleaning monograph in 2002
• Responsible for the present course project (Furphy Glen) – original by Ray Whitmore (Birdie Creek) and
• Regularly participates in “Board Of Directors” analyses of project presentations by course members

It was therefore appropriate that his Life Membership award was made at the 2002 Queensland Modern Course Dinner because of Mike’s involvement with the Course from its inception to the present. Mike retired from active consulting in 2004 aged 70 to enjoy his family life with Jill and his grandchildren.
 

Ken Bateman

Recollections by Daryl Hiddlestone and Ross Stainley.

My favourite recollections of Ken are the often heated and stimulating debates he would have with Greg Eldridge on flotation and slurry distribution.  These would reverberate down the passageways of the 24th Floor of 167 Eagle Street and often spill over to the pub across the way in Queen Street (The Belfast?).  These were exciting times where metallurgists were plentiful, debates were common place and the Utah R&D in Mackay was often a venue for an impromptu symposium when KWB and his Tech Services team would visit from Brisbane HQ.

Ken was greatly respected by his peers and was a good mentor on all things metallurgical (and some non-metallurgical!).  His visits to the Utah/BHP prep plants again inflamed debate and often concluded with an infusion of new knowledge about many coal prep issues.  His detailed handwritten design calculations for Norwich Park, Saraji, Peak Downs and Goonyella probably still hold pride of place in many a filing cabinet.

One of Ken's best and oft-delivered bits of advice was:  "It is better to be roughly correct than accurately wrong".  Worth keeping in mind today more so than ever when calculators and spreadsheets can pump out umpteen decimal places....

Ken enjoyed a beer, and was often the instigator for a night-cap or two after Coal Prep meetings at venues in Brisbane long gone but not forgotten!!  These forays were made more enjoyable by like-minded and equally stimulating colleagues such as Shorty LE Page, John Arnold and John Sedgman, all sadly no longer with us.  Mike Williamson was a great sparring partner with Ken and a good friend along with Alban Lynch and as mentioned before than man in riding boots Greg Eldridge was always ready for a verbal punch-up.  The up and coming "young guns" such as Chris Clarkson, Eugene Gallagher, Bruce Firth and others were ever present and eager to join the discussions.

In the 1990's Ken spent a good amount of his time helpng the Jellinbah Mine onto its feet.  He was instrumental in "hijacking" the visit of a prominent Japanese visitor to enable the visitor tosee the mine and its excellent mining conditions very early.  It was just then a matter of "finding a use" for the then un=loved low volatile coals.  Jellinbah managed to avoid the necessity for a coal preparation plant until after Ken's retirement.

It is a pity we have not seen Ken for some time.  It is always enjoyable and respectful to include the elder statesmen of our elite discipline in gatherings where we can have a chat and a beer and share with the challenges and highlights of the past glories of coal preparation in Australia.

Between 1973 and 1979, Ken was Chairman of the Queensland Society, Vice-Chairman, and Treasurer in that order, for two years in each position.  During this time, Ken was instrumental in establishing the Modern Coal Preparation Course, as it was then known, and was a lecturer for some time at this course.  Ken and his wife Margaret have recently celebrated 50 years of married life, and have an ever-growing family of children and grandchildren.  Ken enjoys reading and bowls, among other interest.

Lister Maltman ...

David Johns ...