President: 1895-1896.
Died April 12th, 1916.
Joseph Henry Collins died at his residence, Crinnis, Par Station, Cornwall, on April 12th, 1916, aged 75 years.
He took an active and prominent part in the foundation of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy; was one of its Trustees; was a Member of Council from its inception until a few months before his death; was
President for the year 1895-1896; and until his retirement to Cornwall made it impossible for him to attend the general meetings, was one of the most important and familiar figures in its discussions and debates.
He contributed several papers to the Transactions of the Institution, the most noteworthy being ‘The Economic Treatment of Low-grade Copper Ores,’ which was read in 1898. This paper embodied, much of Mr. Collins’ Spanish experience, which he obtained during the twelve years, from 1868 to 1880, that he held up the position of chief chemist and metallurgist to the Rio Tinto Company.
For nearly fifty years he occupied a leading position in mining circles, and made reports on various mines in Norway, Sweden, Spain, Hungary and Burma. But Mr. Collins’ chief interests were centred in his native duchy of Cornwall, and the greater part of his life was devoted to a close and careful study of the geology, mineralogy and metallurgy of the deposits of the West of England. Many of his books were devoted to this district; and what is probably his most enduring work, ‘Observations on the West of England Mining Region,’ which was published in 1912, sets forth with great clearness and effect his wide and exact knowledge of the metalliferous deposits of Devon and Cornwall. Amongst his other writings may be mentioned ‘The Hensbarrow Granite District’; ‘Handbook of the Mineralogy of Cornwall and Devon’; ‘Cornish Tin Stones and Tin Capels’; a translation of Moissenet’s ‘Rich parts of the Iodes of Cornwall’; text-books for students on mineralogy, and numerous papers read before scientific societies.
Mr. Collins received the Henwood medal from the Royal Institution of Cornwall in 1893, and the Bolitho medal from the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall in 1898. Besides filling the presidential chair of the Institution, he was likewise a past president of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society and the Royal Institution of Cornwall and he was also an honorary- member of the Mineralogical Society of Petrograd. During his later years he continued to take an active part in the mining affairs of the duchy, and was chairman and managing director of the Wheal Kitty and Penhalls United, Ltd., Tin Mines of Cornwall, and a director of the East Pool and Agar Mines, Ltd.
Mr. Collins was an Original Member of the Institution, and in 1915 was elected an Honorary Member, in recognition of his valuable contributions to geological and mining science.
Vol. 25, Trans I.M.M. 1915-6, pp. 393-94
