CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry (1959 - 1988)

Summary

The CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry replaced the CSIR/O Mineral Utilization Section in 1959. The Division specialised in physical and inorganic chemistry. In 1988 the Division became the Division of Mineral Products.

Details

From "CSIRO research for Australia" (1962) pdf page 59:
"The study of minerals was one of the Division of Industrial Chemistry's earliest activities. It was started in 1940, when Mr. R. G. Thomas (the first Chief of the Division of Mineral Chemistry) came over from Adelaide, where he had been a geochemist with the Division of Biochemistry and General Nutrition. During the war Mr. Thomas initiated a study of the ores of the less common metals, such as titanium, zirconium, hafnium, cerium, thorium, lithium, germanium, and uranium, many of which occur in the beach sands of eastern Australia. In the postwar era the group's pioneer work has been of great value to the mining industry, as one after another of these metals has proved to be of industrial importance. A notable achievement was the development of a process for separating zirconium, a metal used in the construction of nuclear reactors, from hafnium, which contaminates it.

Apart from its interest in the more uncommon metals, the Division of Mineral Chemistry has undertaken sponsored work on the extraction of copper and the cyanidisation method of refining gold."

Chronology

26 May 1959

Operational event - Granted CSIRO divisional status

Related entries

Timeline

 1948 - 1960 CSIR/O Coal Research Section
       1934 - 1970 CSIR/O Ore Dressing Investigations - collaborative venture
       1958 - 1959 CSIRO Minerals Utilization Section
       1959 - 1967 CSIRO Division of Coal Research
             1959 - 1988 CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry
                   1975 - c. 1980 CSIRO Division of Process Technology
                   1988 - 1995 CSIRO Division of Mineral Products
                         1977 - 1980 CSIRO Fuel Geoscience Unit
                         c. 1995 - CSIRO Minerals Division
                               1980 - 1987 CSIRO Division of Fossil Fuels
                                     1988 - 1990 CSIRO Division of Coal Technology
                                           1990 - c. 1995 CSIRO Division of Coal and Energy Technology
                                                 c. 1995 - CSIRO Energy Technology

Published resources

Books

• Bear, I. Joy.; Biegler, Tom; Scott, Tom. R., Alumina to zirconia: the history of CSIRO Division of Mineral Chemistry (Clayton, Victoria: CSIRO Minerals, 2001), 426 pp, https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/alumina-zirconia. Details
• CSIRO, CSIRO research for Australia: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Canberra: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation, 1962), 64 pp, https://www.eoas.info/bib-pdf/ASBS15940.pdf. pdf page 55. Details
• McKay, Andrew, Surprise and Enterprise: Fifty Years of Science for Australia: CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia) (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1976), 48 pp, https://www.eoas.info/bib-pdf/ASBS00655.pdf. Details
• Schedvin, C.B; Trace, K., Historical Directory of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, 1926-1976 (Canberra: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. https://csiropedia.csiro.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/csiro_historical_directory_1926_1976.pdf. Details

Resources

• Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-824202. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Primary description of agency CA 4541; CSIRO, Division of Mineral Chemistry. Registration of entity: 1 October 1987', in RecordSearch, National Archives of Australia, 2000, https://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?Number=CA%204541. Details