Robert Henry Crozier died in Kumasi Hospital; Gold Coast, on August 7th, 1939, at the age of 53.
An Australian by birth, he started his career at an early age as assistant in the laboratory of the Australian Metal Co., Melbourne. Until 1912 he occupied positions as assayer to various mining concerns in the States of the Commonwealth, and in that year he was appointed general manager of the Arthur River Exploration Co., Northern Territory.
In the following year he engaged on research work in connexion with Minerals Separation and De Bavay’s processes in Melbourne, and six years later he was appointed mill superintendent of the Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines, Queensland. In 1919 he left Australia to take charge of the smelting plant of the Burma Corporation. In the three years of his control there, production was increased from 1,100 tons to more than 2,000 tons of lead and 200,000 oz. of silver.
In 1922 he started in practice as a consulting engineer and the result of research on the treatment of oil-shale and coal led to the invention of the Crozier process of retorting, which he was able to employ during engagements extending over eight years from 1924 to 1933 with Mineral Oils Extraction, Ltd., and the Tasmanite Shale Oil Co. In that period he examined coals and oil shales in France, Estonia, the United States, Brazil, Australia and other countries. In 1933 he returned to private consulting practice, but was engaged by Bewick, Moreing & Co. in the examination of mines in Victoria and Tasmania, and by the Mining Trust, Ltd., of Auckland, in the examination of mines and alluvial deposits in New Zealand.
At the date of his death he was managing a gold property in the Northern territories of the Gold Coast.
Mr. Crozier was elected a Member of the Institution in 1936.
Vol. 49, Trans I.M.M. 1939-40, pp. 733-34
