James William Cairns died in England on 14th February, 1963, at the age of 59, after a long illness.
Mr. Cairns was educated at the King’s School, Canterbury, Kent, and trained at the Royal School of Mines from 1921 to 1926, gaining the A.R.S.M. in mining.
He was employed in Rhodesia as junior field engineer at Kasempa Concessions, Ltd., for a few months and then took up the appointment of assistant research engineer for Rhodesia Broken Hill Development Co., Ltd. After a short visit to India in 1930 he returned to Northern Rhodesia to the mining engineering department of Nkana mine, where he remained for five years. He worked for the British South Africa Co. from 1935 to 1937, and then spent a year in Yugoslavia at Trepca Mines, Ltd. He returned to Northern Rhodesia where he was employed by Rhokana Corporation, Ltd., until 1945. For the next six years he was on the Gold Coast, first with Amalgamated Banket Areas, Ltd., Tarkwa, and then in 1947 with Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, Ltd., Obuasi. He managed Bibiani (1927), Ltd., from 1949 to 1951.
Mr. Cairns resumed work in Northern Rhodesia at the end of 1951 with Rhodesian Selection Trust (Services), Ltd., at Mufulira, and in 1954 moved to Bancroft Mines, Ltd. From 1955 until his retirement in 1962 owing to ill health, he was appointments officer for Anglo American Corporation of South Africa, Ltd., in Johannesburg.
He was the author of a paper published in the Transactions of the Institution (vol. 55, 1945-46) entitled ‘A note on the use of concrete piping for ventilation and drainage in main haulage development’.
Mr. Cairns was elected a Student of the Institution in 1926 and transferred to Associate Membership in 1930.
Vol. 19, Trans I.M.M. 1963-4, p. 108
