Philip Rabone died at his home in Blackheath, London, on 10th July, 1960, at the age of 70.
Mr. Rabone attended the Royal School of Mines between 1908 and 1912, and gained a first-class Associateship of the School in metallurgy. He was later awarded the Diploma of Imperial College.
In October, 1912, Mr. Rabone joined Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, Ltd., as a learner at Simmer Deep and Simmer and Jack Proprietary Mines, Ltd., and later at Sub-Nigel Gold Mining Co., Ltd. From January to June, 1914, he worked at Shamva Mines, Ltd., Southern Rhodesia, on tube milling and thickener plants, and then transferred to the assay office of Falcon Mines, Ltd.
Shortly after war broke out in 1914 he enlisted in the 2nd Rhodesia Regiment and served in East Africa. He was commissioned in 1916. After training in England in 1918 he was posted to France where he served as lieutenant, R.E. Signals Service.
On demobilization in 1919 Mr. Rabone took an appointment as assistant metallurgist with Minerals Separation, Ltd., and remained with this company until 1927, being in charge of construction and running flotation plants in for Namaqua Copper Co., Ltd., in 1922-23, Union Minière du Haut Katanga in 1924-25 and Société Miniere de Plakalnitza (Bulgaria) in 1926. Mr. Rabone then worked in Spain for 18 months as mill superintendent of Arrendatarios de San Telmo, and during 1929 was engaged on the flotation plant at Eagle Lead Co., Ltd., at Llanrwst, North Wales. He was assistant mill superintendent at the pilot flotation plant at Roan Antelope Copper Mines, Ltd., Northern Rhodesia, from 1929 to 1930, and on his return to England began writing Flotation plant practice, a text-book for the plant engineer, published in 1932. He was engaged for a few months in 1935 on publicity at the Fraser and Chalmers Engineering Works, and then transferred to the Research Laboratories of the General Electric Co., Ltd., Wembley, where he remained in charge of the ore dressing laboratory for twelve years.
Mr. Rabone went to Johannesburg in 1947 to take up the position of principal professional officer of the Government Metallurgical Laboratory and worked on the development of a method for processing uranium. He was appointed metallurgist to London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Co., Ltd., in January, 1954, and remained in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, until his return to England in 1956 to rejoin the General Electric Co. group at Erith and assume responsibility for the company’s technical literature in the mining sphere. He held this position at the time of his death.
Apart from Flotation plant practice which reached its fourth edition in 1957, Mr. Rabone contributed many papers to the technical press overseas as well as at home. He was author of ‘A short-wave ultra-violet prospecting set for fluorescent minerals’ published in the Transactions of the Institution (vol. 54, 1944-45) and of ‘Mineral dressing and cyanidation in Southern Africa’, a contribution to the Fourth Empire Mining and Metallurgical Congress held in 1949.
Mr. Rabone joined the Institution as a Student in 1911, and was elected to Associate Membership in 1918 and to full Membership in 1940. He served on the Council of the Institution between 1946 and 1947. He was elected a Fellow of the Imperial College of Science and Technology in 1957.
Vol. 70, Trans I.M.M., 1960-61, pp.219-20
