Frank Thomas Matthews White (1909–1971) was an Australian mining and metallurgical engineer and mineral science educator. His career included appointments in Australia, Fiji, Malaya, and Canada.
An examination of White's career reveals steady progression from an initial technical focus on the goldfields of Western Australia, to the challenge of new mining enterprises in Fiji, to post-war rehabilitation of tin mining in Malaya, ultimately to encompass a broad appreciation of the complexities of the minerals industry as a whole, its human factors, and societal context. He applied these insights in developing innovative academic programs at the University of Queensland and at McGill University, referring to the spectrum as "the total environment of mining". To pursue this vision at McGill, in 1968 he initiated an Institute for Mineral Industry Research. Two buildings (one a geodesic dome) were funded to house the institute at the minerals-rich Gault Estate at Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, where ventilation research and simulations took place. This initiative came to an end due to his untimely death; his ashes were scattered at the site, and a commemorative cairn erected. Momentum from the initiative contributed to the formation in 1974 of an Institute of Occupational Health and Safety at McGill. A monument in his honor, donated by former students, is in place at the Experimental Mine, University of Queensland. His life story is the subject of a biography entitled Miner with a Heart of Gold.
Education and Qualifications
Frank White was born in Northcote, Victoria, Australia, son of Edith (née Matthews) and Frank Kenworthy White, Justice of the Peace, councillor and mayor of the City of Kew, Victoria for two periods: 1932–33 and 1945–1946.
White attended Melbourne High School. Awarded a Free Place Scholarship (1927–30), he enrolled in the University of Melbourne to pursue a Bachelor of Metallurgical Engineering degree B.Met.E., conferred in 1931. He received Mining and Metallurgical Bursaries from 1928 to 1930, and the Students' Lecture Prize in 1929. In 1936, he earned the Certificate of Competency as Underground Superintendent (WA Mines Regulations Act of 1906). In 1946, he qualified through the British system as a Magistrate, First-Class in the field of mining law. In 1950, he was awarded a Bachelor of Mining Engineering degree B.E.(Min) ad eundem gradum, from the University of Queensland. In 1951, he was awarded a Nuffield Foundation Fellowship, and in 1957 a Carnegie Fellowship. A Fellow of the Geological Society of London (FGS), and Fellow of the Institution of Metallurgists (FIM), he was also a member of other professional societies, including: Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (London), Institution of Mining Engineers (London), Australian Institute of Metals (President 1953), Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Geological Society of Australia, Royal Society of Queensland, Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and Société de l'industrie minérale.
Career
Gold Mining and Milling, Western Australia
In 1931, Frank TM White took up a position with Wiluna Gold Mines Ltd, some 500 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, where – as chief metallurgical chemist – he conducted research into and managed mineral processing; he also served as deputy mine geologist for two years (1933–35). In 1935, White was appointed to a position as Assistant Manager and Mill Superintendent of Mount Magnet Gold Mines. At Mount Magnet (Hill 50) he earned the Certificate of Competency as underground superintendent (WA Mines Regulations Act of 1906), and became a Registered Mine Manager at 27 years of age, the youngest person to obtain this certification at the time. In early 1937, he contracted as general manager of a start-up Australian mining company, Edjudina Consolidated Gold Mines Ltd. He resigned later that year to take up a post in Fiji in 1937 with His Majesty's Colonial Mines Service.
Setting up a Department of Mines, Fiji
In 1934, a mining ordinance to regulate a fledgling industry (initially at Vatukoula) was introduced by the British Colonial Administration in Fiji. As the Ordinance called for a Mines Inspectorate, H.M. Colonial Mines Service recruited Frank TM White to set up a Mines Department in Suva. In addition to developing legislation and implementing inspections, by 1939 White (as Inspector of Mines) also initiated and personally developed a geological survey of Viti Levu, resulting in Fiji's first geological survey map, published in 1943. Known colloquially as "White's Map", this remained the accepted geological representation until at least the mid-1950s.