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A search of http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/ using the search string "Northern Mercantile" reveals five companies with that name, with company files surviving in TNA. They might be worth investigating. My guess is that this was a public company. I presume that there is an archive somewhere of published company reports, possibly the British Library's Newspaper library at Colindale London. Peter King 49, Stourbridge Road, Hagley, Stourbridge West Midlands DY9 0QS 01562-720368 [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of TONY BREWIS Sent: 24 December 2008 09:58 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Northern Mercantile and Industrial Corporation 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