Godfrey Austin died at Elisabethville, Katanga, Congo-Belge, on December 27th, 1914, aged 33 years.
He was educated at St. Ignatius College, Sydney, N.S.W. From 1896 to 1898 he was engaged on prospecting work in Bodalla, N.S.W., and in working a small claim in Western Australia, leaving for the Orange Free State in the last mentioned year, where he was occupied with prospecting work.
During the years 1899 to 1902 he served in the Boer war as Lieutenant in the Kaffrarian Rifles, and on the conclusion of hostilities he undertook prospecting in the Western Transvaal.
In 1903 and 1904 he was engaged in sampling and directing native labour underground at the Bibiani Gold Mine, West Africa, and subsequently became assayer and mill superintendent at the Nerschinsk Gold Mine, Siberia.
Returning to England towards the latter end of 1906, he went through a special metallurgical course, and then took up an appointment in Guinée Française, where for eight months he was occupied in river dredging for gold and for a similar period was engaged on the development of the Sidikeila Reef. During 1909 he was examining alluvial deposits in Haute Guinée, and in 1910 and 1911 was engaged in prospecting in West Africa for the Fanti Consolidated Mines.
In 1912 he went back to Western Australia to work on a small claim, and the following year was engaged on the Ropp Tin Mine, Naraguta, Northern Nigeria.
In 1914 he accompanied a prospecting expedition to the Congo-Belge on behalf of the Oceana Development Co., Ltd., and it was when this expedition was returning homewards, that he met with his death.
Mr. Austin was admitted to Studentship of the Institution in 1907, and was transferred to Associateship in 1910.
Vol. 24, Trans IMM 1914-15, pp. 501
