G.D. DELPRAT
A handsome residence (now the north Mine staff club home) was constructed in Proprietary Square for G.D. Delprat, who was appointed assistant general manager of Broken Hill Proprietary company in 1898. Guillaume Daniel Delprat was born at Delft, Holland, on 1 September 1857. After graduatimng in mining and metallurgy in Amsterdam, he gained experience in Spain and other mining centres throughout the world. He served the Broken Hill Proprietary company with great distinction as general manager from 1899 to 1921, and died in Melbourne in 1937.
1902: Following complaints by the townspeople and the Municiple Council of the effects of sulphur fumes, G.D. Delprats, general manager of the Proprietary Mine stated that no further desulphurisation of zincy slimes by roasting would be carried out on the company’s leases. Approximately five miles from Broken Hill, a long trench or kiln was then constructed near the Silverton Tramway Company’s rail line for the sintering, or roasting, of the zinc material. In May, a recreation hall was opened by G.D. Delprat for the 246 men employed at the sintering works, but an application for a hotel licence was refused.
1903: Experiments continued at the Proprietary Company to devise a large scale plant to separate zinc sulphide materials from residues. G.D. Delprat, using a hot salt – cake solution, had been successful in 1902 in creating the flotation of zincy particles, a process somewhat similar to that developed by C. V. Potter, a Melbourne chemist, two years earlier. Following costly litigation, the parties merged the two metallurgical systems which became known as the Potter – Delprat process.
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