Alan Roderick West died in Broken Hill, N.S.W., on 9th June, 1961, at the age of 59.
He was born in Australia and educated at Guildford Grammar School, Western Australia, between 1911 and 1917, and took an engineering course at Perth University in 1918-19. During the period 1920-25 he worked in several gold mines in Western Australia gaining experience in various capacities, and in April, 1925, joined the staff of North Broken Hill, Ltd., as assistant surveyor. He remained with the company for the remaining 36 years of his life.
Mr. West completed the mining engineering course at the Broken Hill branch of Sydney Technical College between 1925 and 1929, gaining the Diploma in Mining Engineering. He obtained his Mine Manager’s Certificate in October, 1930. Six years after joining North Broken Hill, Mr. West was appointed technical assistant to the underground manager in 1931; in 1936 he became assistant underground manager after six months in an acting capacity; in July, 1937, he took the position of underground manager (North Section). A year later he was appointed underground manager to the company, and held this position for eight years. In 1946 he was made deputy manager and mining superintendent, and in 1947 was promoted mine manager.
Mr. West had been a director of North Broken Hill, Ltd., since 1952, and was also a director of various subsidiaries of the Broken Hill mining industry at the time of his death. From 1952 to 1961 he was president of the Broken Hill Mining Managers’ Association and a member of the Broken Hill Water Board. He was also an Honorary Fellow of Sydney Technical College.
He was the author of various papers to technical journals, including a detailed history of the Broken Hill mining industry and its contribution to Australia’s economy, published by the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in December, 1956.
Mr. West was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1948. He had served as a Member of Council of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy from 1953 and held the office of President in 1956.
Vol. 72, Trans IMM 1962-63, p.532
