I recently had sight of a small book "My Family" (ISBN 0 900439 96 3) in which a Welsh
clergyman, the Rev David H Williams, traces his ancestors. His father, Ralph Williams,
trained as an industrial chemist at John Lysaghts in Newport, South Wales. In December
1926 he sailed to the Gold Coast to be Cyanide Foreman at Ashanti for one year.
His next job, which particularly interests me, was "with the Northern Merchantile and
Investment Corporation, to be Sampler and Assayer at the recently discovered iron ore
deposit at Marampa in Sierra Leone". Ralph sailed from Liverpool on 20 June 1928 for
Freetown, his contract allowing a salary of £45 p.a.and first class travel. Accommodation
at Marampa was to be "a newly built native hut with camp equipment provided". From
Freetown he travelled by river launch a six-hour trip to Port Lokko, arriving on 3 July. From
there "he went to" Marampa [about 50 miles further inland].
A photograph in the book, dated February 1929, shows the laboratory he worked in, another
"native hut" with thatched roof. When back in the UK on leave in 1929, Ralph suffered from
malaria and blackwater fever, and although the Corporation "were anxious to renew his
contract" his doctor refused to allow him to return to Sierra Leone.
He subsequently was signed on by the Sinai Mining Company as analytical chemist and
sailed to Egypt at the close of 1929 to work on the manganese mines of Umm Bugma.
In his book, David Williams quotes the Daily Express of 27 March 1943, in which an
article appeared mentioning Marampa, the "Magic Mountain" and how it had become
Britain's leading supplier of iron ore in WWII when supplies from Sweden were cut off.
My particular interest in this is that I worked at Marampa from 1963 to 1967, with what
was then the Sierra Leone Development Company. The story was that a geologist, James
Campbell, working for the Overseas Geological Survey, discovered this hill of iron ore,
staked a claim, resigned from the Survey, and borrowed £4 million from the Colonial
Development Corporation. He built the port of Pepel, a 50 mile 3ft 6in gauge railway line
and opened up the mine at Marampa, and started shipping lump ore to the UK and Holland,
the initial shipments being in 1933. It was said that he paid back the £4 million in four years,
but that might be exaggeration!
The original shipments were of lump ore, but as the outer lateritic coating of the deposit was
removed, the underlying powdery hematite schisst was revealed, and a concentrator plant
had to be built. The first of these was named MPO1 (=Marampa Powder Ore 1). As the
Daily Express article quoted by David Williams says, Marampa was an inportant source
of iron ore for the UK during WWII, and a newer, larger process plant, MPO2, was built
at Marampa by the Ministry of Supply in 1943.
By the time I went ot Marampa in 1963, MPO1 had been dismantled and on its site MPO3
and MPO4 had been built. Originally MPO2 had had shaking tables, so had a large floor
area. Subsequently Humphreys Spirals were used, and by 1967 we had over 900 of them in
the plant, processing about 2.6 million tons a year of raw ore to produce about 1.6 million
tons of concentrate grading over 63.5% Fe, all sold as sinter plant feed.
Now for my question: Having worked for the Sierra Leone Development Company for four years,
I have to confess that I had never heard of the "Northern Mercantile and Industrial Corporation".
Has anyone heard of it? Can anyone suggest sources of information I should try?
Thanks,
Tony Brewis
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