Henry Lavers died at his home in Essex on 22nd September, 1955, at the age of 78, as the result of a fall.
Mr. Lavers was born in Australia and from 1893 to 1896 trained in mining and metallurgy at the School of Mines, Stawell, Victoria. After working as chemist and assayer to E. and A. Copper Co., Port Adelaide, for a year, he was employed until 1909 at various smelters and mills of the Broken Hill companies, at the same tinge undergoing a further period of training at Adelaide University between 1901 and 1903.
He spent four months as assayer at the Port Pirie smelting works of Broken Hill Proprietary Co., then from 1897 to 1902 was head assayer and assistant metallurgist at Broken Hill Proprietary Block 14 smelter, Port Adelaide, subsequently becoming superintendent of the zinc ‘flotation’ mill. From 1905 to 1906 he held the position of superintendent of the flotation mill at Zinc Corporation, Ltd., and during 1906 worked in a similar capacity at the concentration mill at Block 14.
During 1907 Mr. Lavers was metallurgist and manager of the Gillies Sulphide Co. Broken Hill. In 1908 he joined Minerals Separation, Ltd., at Broken Hill and Melbourne, and remained with that company and De Bavays Co. until 1922. He came to England in that year as chief engineer and works manager for Minerals Separation, Ltd. He travelled extensively on their behalf and acted as consultant on separation processes even after his recent retirement. He will be remembered for his part in the development of the flotation process. He was a director of Knitsley Refractory Products, Ltd.
Mr. Layers was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1909. He had also been a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, to which body he had contributed several technical papers.
Vol. 65, Trans IMM 1955-56, p.466
