Adam Alexander Boyd died at Brisbane, Australia, on 16th December, 1948, at the age of 79.
He was born in Scotland and from 1885 to 1888 took an engineering and mining course at the Technical College, Glasgow, after which he was articled to Messrs. Dixon and Marshall, civil and mining engineers of Glasgow.
In 1890 he went to New South Wales as assistant mining manager, Bellambi Colliery, and then was assistant manager and surveyor to the Newcastle Wallsend Coal Co. for five years. In 1898 he was appointed mining manager to Broken Hill Proprietary Co., Ltd., where he remained for 13 years. In 1911 he was made manager of the Newcastle Wallsend Coal Co. and two years later took up the post of mining superintendent of The Mount Morgan Gold Mining Co., Ltd., at Mount Morgan, Queensland, four years later becoming general manager. He continued in this position until the company went into liquidation in 1927, but, being convinced that the deposit was still workable, Mr. Boyd was instrumental in forming a new company, Mount Morgan, Ltd., to take over the mine and some of the assets of the original company, and he became a director of the new company.
In 1929 he was a member of the Royal Commission appointed to investigate the mining industry of Queensland and was subsequently appointed to a Special Commission to visit the U.S.A. and Canada to report on mining conditions in those countries. He took over the general management of Mount Morgan, Ltd., in 1932 and remained in active charge until his retirement in 1935. He resumed his association with the company, however, as chairman and managing director from 1938 to 1941, and retained his directorship of the company, acting as technical adviser to the board, until his death.
Mr. Boyd was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1920. He had been a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy since 1910 and a Member of Council from 1917 to 1945, and in 1941 was awarded the Institute Medal.
Vol. 59, Trans I.M.M. 1949-50, pp. ?
