Arthur James Wyly died in Johannesburg on 30th December, 1952. He was 77 years of age.
He was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and from 1893 to 1896 attended Adelaide University and School of Mines, graduating in mining and metallurgy. He worked as assayer with Mr. E.W. Hawkes, mining engineer in Adelaide, before taking a post with Cobar Gold Mines, Ltd., N.S.W., from 1897 to 1898, when he became metallurgist to the Bank of England mine, Kalgoorlie. He joined the Great Boulder group of mines in 1899 as foreman and manager of Hannan’s Public Crushing Co., and from 1900 to 1906 was foreman of the sulphide mill of Great Boulder Perseverance Co.
Mr. Wyly managed Hopes Hill treatment plant at Southern Cross, Western Australia, for a few months in 1906 before going to Wales in 1907 to take up the appointment of mill manager at Dolgelly copper mine, and later that year left for Mexico to superintend the Elmore process at Avino Mines of Mexico.
His next assignment took him to France in 1908-09 at Mine d’or du Chatelet, and in 1909 he joined a London firm with interests in the Dutch East Indies, finally becoming their East Indies resident consulting engineer. He worked in Sumatra, for seven years as chief reduction officer at Mijnbouw Maatschappij Simau, and from 1918 to 1936 at M.M. Redjang Lebong. During 1937 he held the post of manager of Lebong Simpang gold mine.
Mr. Wyly then went to South Africa, and was mill manager at West Springs, Ltd., from 1938 to 1939, during the 1939-1945 war holding the position of reduction manager successively at West Springs, Springs and Daggafontein mines in the Anglo-American group. He subsequently practised as a consultant in Johannesburg.
Mr. Wyly was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1913, and was also a life member of the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa and of the American Institution of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers.
Vol. 62, Trans IMM 1952-53, p.476
