Albert Edward Payne died suddenly in Johannesburg on 31st July, 1952.
He received his technical training at the Royal School of Mines from 1890 to 1893, obtaining the A.R.S.M. in mining and metallurgy. On leaving the school he went to India where he was engaged for two years in prospecting and developing manganese deposits in the Vizag district, Madras Presidency. From 1895 to 1896 he held the position of assistant manager of the Nicol Gold Mines and Consolidated Gold Mines of Western Australia, Ltd. In 1897 he went to the Transvaal as surveyor to Aurora West United Gold Mining Co., Ltd., subsequently working in the same capacity at the Bantjes Consolidated, Kimberley Roodepoort, New Unified and New Croesus mines.
He went to South America in 1900 for Ecuadorian Association, Ltd., to report on the railway route from Guayaquil to Quito, and returned to the Transvaal in 1901 as surveyor to Rietfontein ‘A’, Ltd. He served in the Boer War as a lieutenant with the Rand Rifles (Mines Division). From 1902 to 1905 he was employed by Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Co., Ltd., as chief surveyor, and in 1905 was appointed manager of Primrose Gold Mining Co., Ltd. He held that position for five years, and for the next thirteen years to 1923 was manager to Consolidated Langlaagte Mines, Ltd. From 1923 until his retirement from active mining in 1935 he was manager at Van Ryn Deep, Ltd.
Mr. Payne gave freely of his services to mining and social problems. In 1939 he became a member of the Commission formed to enquire into the closing down of West Spaarwater, Ltd., and he also served on the Miners’ Phthisis Acts Commission from 1941 to 1943. He was a member of the Committee on single outlet working of New Machavie Gold Mining Co., Ltd., Blyvobruitzicht Gold Mining Co., Ltd., and Libanon Gold Mining Co., Ltd., for six years, and also served on the Commission on the closing down of Van Ryn Deep, Ltd., and Witwatersrand Deep, Ltd., from 1944. He was for a time chairman of the East Rand Juvenile Affairs Board.
Mr. Payne, who was elected a Member of the Institution in 1904, was a life member of the Association of Mine Managers of the Transvaal, a member of the Chemical Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa, of the Society for the Advancement of Science, and of the Geological Society of South Africa. He was joint author of a paper read at the Third Empire Mining and Metallurgical Congress held in South Africa in 1930, entitled ‘Stoping operations in the Witwatersrand gold mines’.
Vol. 62, Trans I.M.M., 1952-53, pp.299-300
