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It seems the background to this company and its connection with the Sierra Leone Development Company 
Ltd (which was later a subsidiary of William Baird & Co Ltd, the Scottish steel firm) is given in an 
article in the Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol 16 No 1 (1978) pp 67-79.

Russell Wear



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Messenger" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: Northern Mercantile and Industrial Corporation


This company is in the Stock Exchange Official
Year-Book for 1943 but only the bare details of
office, directors and capital appear. Contact me
if this is any use. It does not appear in the
'Register of Defunct and Other Companies removed
from the Stock Exchange Official Year-Book' 1970 edition.

Michael Messenger




At 17:39 24/12/2008, you wrote:
>Unfortunately there is no archive of company
>reports outside each company's archives however
>many brief reports are in the Stock Exchange
>Year Book (the title of this publication varies slightly)
>
>
>--- On Wed, 24/12/08, Peter King <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>From: Peter King <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Northern Mercantile and Industrial Corporation
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Date: Wednesday, 24 December, 2008, 4:50 PM
>
>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