African Chrysotile Asbestos, Ltd., South Africa

African Chrysotile Asbestos Limited worked a deposit "some 35 miles from Barberton and approximately 5 miles from the Havelock Mine which is just across the border in the Protectorate of Swaziland," according to a 1954 article in Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, which said that "operations on a limited scale were started in 1943."⁴ In December 1953 the consulting mining engineer W. E. Sinclair, writing in the same journal, said the company "is operating on the same serpentine body as the Havelock."¹ The 1954 article described its fiber as "the Chrysotile type known to end users as ACA which is very suitable for the manufacture of Asbestos Cement products."⁴ It said that "only grades 3 and 4 are produced at present," with "an approximate recovery of 6%," and that the company intended "in the near future to recover the lower grades which are presently passing to the dump."⁴ A 1959 history of South African chrysotile in the journal named African Chrysotile among the deposits that "have since developed into producing mines in the Barberton area."²

The documents report this mine producing asbestos fiber for sale.⁴

Location

Year by year

Every statement about this mine in the documents, in each document's own words, by the year it is about.

1943

• Opened: “Operations on a limited scale were started in 1943” (African Chrysotile Asbestos Limited), p. 22⁴

1953

• Worked: “The African Chrysotile Asbestos is operating on the same serpentine body as the Havelock” (African Chrysotile Asbestos), said by W. E. Sinclair, M.I.M.M. (Consulting Mining Engineer), as reported by Asbestos (magazine), p. 12¹

1954

• Fiber: “Chrysotile type known to end users as ACA” (African Chrysotile Asbestos Limited), p. 22⁴
• Description: “located some 35 miles from Barberton and approximately 5 miles from the Havelock Mine” (African Chrysotile Asbestos Limited), p. 22⁴
• Output: “Only grades 3 and 4 are produced at present ... an approximate recovery of 6%” (African Chrysotile Asbestos Limited), p. 22⁴

1959

• Worked: “Other deposits that have since developed into producing mines in the Barberton area are ... African Chrysotile”, p. 8²

1961

• Worked: “production of ... chrysotile by African Chrysotile Asbestos, Ltd.” (African Chrysotile Asbestos, Ltd.), as reported by Mineral Trade Notes, p. 12³
• Fiber: “chrysotile” (African Chrysotile Asbestos, Ltd.), p. 12³

Other names

Documents call this mine “African Chrysotile Asbestos, Ltd.”, “African Chrysotile Asbestos Limited, Barberton”.

References

1. Asbestos Magazine, 1953, December 1953 (December 1, 1953), p. 12.
2. Asbestos Magazine, 1959, August 1959 (August 1, 1959), p. 8.
3. Minerals Yearbook: Asbestos Chapters, 1961 (January 1, 1962), p. 12.
4. Asbestos Magazine, 1954, October 1954 (October 1, 1954), p. 22.