Arthur Watts Allen died in South Carolina on 1 April, 1966. He was 87 years of age.
Born in Devon and educated at Cambridge University. Mr. Allen graduated with the degree of B.A. in 1902, being awarded that of M.A. eight years later. From 1902 to 1904 he was engaged in marine biology research in Melanesia and then undertook chemical and metallurgical posts in Australia, Africa and South and North America, being concerned with research and the design, construction and management of ore-dressing and hydrometallurgical plants until 1918. His next appointments were in the field of scientific and technical publishing and between 1918 and 1927 he was associated with various American journals and, later, was a director of McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd.
From 1927 to 1933 was engaged in consulting work in the U.S.A., Ecuador, Chile, Peru and, finally, became general manager of Cuyuni Goldfields, Ltd in what was then British Guiana. During the next ten years he served as principal economist, Foreign Minerals Division, Bureau of Mines. Washington: and this post was followed by others in Costa Rica (from 1947 to 1950); by consulting work (from 1951 to 1956); and by his appointment as commodity industrial analyst at the Bureau of Mines. Washington. After his retirement in 1959 Mr. Allen was resident in Borneo for a number of years, later returning to the U.S.A.
Among Mr Allen’s many scientific achievements may be listed the simultaneous displacement method of silver-ore pulp treatment, designed to meet special conditions in northern Mexico when vacuum filtration was introduced there; chemical research and the outlining of reliable testing techniques for the control of working cyanide solutions; and the development of the Allen process in the treatment of Chilean caliches for the recovery of nitrate, with iodine and potash by-products, by the introduction of a modified hydrometallurgical technique and involving the provision for the deposition in the leaching charge of a water-soluble filter aid (in this instance sodium chloride), thus permitting the successful beneficiation of a highly refractory raw material. (This process was sponsored and adopted by du Pont Co. in the U.S.A.)
Mr. Allen was a member of many scientific and professional societies. He was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1910. The author of Mill and cyanide handbook. Handbook of ore dressing and Recovery of nitrate from Chilean caliche. He also wrote very many technical papers. Among the latter is that entitled ‘Clay: its relation to ore dressing and cyaniding operations’ (Transactions, vol.25. 1915-16).
Vol. 75, Trans IMM 1966, pp.74
