Frederick Close died of tubercular trouble at Montana, Switzerland, on January 25th, 1921, aged 44 years.
He graduated at Christ Church, Oxford, with the degree of B.A., and on leaving the University in 1902 he practised assaying at the late Mr. G.T. Holloway’s laboratory in Chancery Lane, London, W.C. In July of that year he went to South Africa to work on the cyanide plant of the Village Main Reef mine.
In May, 1903, he was engaged to go to Sumatra and was for two years employed on the Redjang-Lebong mine, for six months on shaft-sinking and stoping and for the remainder of the period as cyanider on the sand and slime plants.
Returning to England towards the end of 1905, Mr. Close put in several more months of assaying with Mr. Holloway and, in February, 1906, joined the staff of the Ore Concentration Co., Ltd., with whom he remained until the close of 1910. During the last three years of this engagement he was sole agent of the Company in the United States and Mexico, with an office and laboratory at Denver, Colo. While thus employed, he visited concentrating mills in North America, and he super-intended the erection and operation of numerous plants embodying the Elmore patents.
In 1911 he conducted experiments in concentration for the Murex Magnetic Co., until he was recalled to Sumatra to take the position of general manager of the Kinondam mine. At the close of 1918 he started a private consulting practice in conjunction with Messrs. G.T. Holloway & Co., at Limehouse, which necessitated continual Journeys abroad. In 1920 his failing health sent him to Switzerland.
Mr. Close was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1906 and was transferred to Membership in 1914.
Vol. 31, Trans I.M.M. 1921-3, pp. 575-6
