Reginald Henry Kendall died in St. Thomas’s Hospital, London, on November 30th, 1925, of heart failure. After experiencing ill health for some months in India, he had come to England to recuperate, but unfortunately had not been in this country for more than a few days before his death occurred.
His career was chiefly associated with India, and for upwards of 30 years he was connected with the firm of John Taylor & Sons, whose service he entered in 1895 after completing his apprenticeship with Johnson & Sons, the well-known assayers. For five years he was employed as reduction officer on the Pestarena gold mine in Northern Italy. In 1900 he was transferred to the Ouro Preto gold mines in Brazil, where he was instrumental in introducing the use of blankets in cyanidation, with other improvements in metallurgical treatment. In 1909 he went to India, to the Dharwar gold field, Bombay Presidency, when on the Kabulgitti mine he encountered graphite in the ore which proved difficult to remove.
From Dharwar he moved in 1911 to the Kolar gold field as chief cyanide and analytical chemist to the Mysore Gold Mining Co., Ltd., and subsequently consulting metallurgist to the Nundydroog Mines, Ltd., and the Balaghat Gold Mines, Ltd. He reorganized the cyanide treatment plant for the current ore and erected an extensive additional plant for the retreatment of dumps left over from previous years. He originated a process for using manganiferous limestone in the cyanidation of old dump material, thereby accomplishing a considerable saving in cyanide consumption.
He contributed two important papers to the Transactions of the Institution, dealing with his work. The first, published in 1910, dealt with the ‘Treatment of Refractory Low-grade Gold Ores at the Ouro Preto Gold Mine’ (Trans. xx, 1910-11), and the second, published in 1925, which dealt with ‘Treatment of Gold-bearing Quartz on the Kolar Gold Field’ (Trans. xxxiv, pt. 2, 1924-25) was written in collaboration with Mr. A.F. Hosking. This latter paper was originally submitted to the First Empire Mining and Metallurgical Congress, and was published in the Congress Proceedings, Part II.
Mr. Kendall was elected a Member of the Institution in 1900.
Vol. 35, Trans IMM 1925-26, pp.446-7
