Johns-Manville deposits, Mashaba, Zimbabwe

The U.S. Bureau of Mines' Minerals Yearbook for 1952 reported that "the Johns-Manville Corp., in association with several other companies, is developing two asbestos deposits at Mashaba in the Victoria district," and that "one mill will handle the product of both deposits."⁴ The yearbook for 1953 said that a new company, Rhodesian Asbestos, Ltd., "financed jointly by the Johns-Manville Corp., the British Metal Corp., Ltd., Simon I. Patiño, and Southern Minerals & Marketing Corp. (Pty.), Ltd., has been established to develop several asbestos properties in the Mashaba district," and that "production on a substantial scale is anticipated in the near future."¹

In April 1954 Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, wrote that Rhodesian Asbestos Limited was "under the direction of Canadian Johns-Manville Company, Ltd., in association with British Metals Corp., Ltd., Anglo-Huranian Ltd., Southern Minerals & Marketing Corporation (Pty) Ltd., and the Simon I. Patino interests," with its ore properties "at Mashaba in the Victorian district of Southern Rhodesia."² The journal said that mining there "is done by the underground diamond drill blast-hole method" and that "sinking of two shafts to a depth of 560 feet was completed during 1953," with headframes erected over them.² It reported a mill on the site "which can produce 150 tons of fibre a month," and a new mill "well underway, with completion expected sometime during the summer of 1954."² "The fibre from Mashaba is the chrysotile type and is suitable for the manufacture of asbestos-cement products," the journal said; it was trucked to the railhead at Fort Victoria and shipped through Beira, Mozambique, "for transport by water to J-M plants and to customers in the United States and abroad."²

Johns-Manville's annual report for 1955, as Asbestos printed it, said that "because of delays in starting there was limited production of asbestos fibre in Southern Rhodesia from the mines of Rhodesian Asbestos Limited, in which Johns-Manville has a 51 percent interest."³ In April 1957 the journal gave "Rhodesia Asbestos (Johns Manville)" 1210 tons for June 1956, which it called an average month; the figure is the company's, with no mine named.⁵ According to a Johns-Manville announcement printed in Asbestos in January 1959, on November 28, 1958, "the Southern Rhodesian Asbestos mines of Rhodesian Asbestos Limited, in which Canadian Johns-Manville held a 51 percent interest, were sold to Rhodesian & General Asbestos Corporation (PVT) Limited, a Southern Rhodesian subsidiary of Turner & Newall, of Manchester, England."⁶

The documents report this mine producing asbestos fiber for sale.⁵

Location

Output the documents report

Figures as printed, in the units each document uses (short tons before about 1990, metric tons after, in most U.S. chapters). Some are a year's output, some a daily rate or a capacity, some a company's total rather than this mine's alone; the statement for that year below says which.

Year by year

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

1952

• Exploration: “is developing two asbestos deposits at Mashaba in the Victoria district” (Johns-Manville Corp.), p. 10⁴
• Mill: “One mill will handle the product of both deposits” (Johns-Manville Corp.), p. 10⁴

1953

• Opened: “Production on a substantial scale is anticipated in the near future” (Rhodesian Asbestos, Ltd.), p. 10¹
• Ownership: “A new company, Rhodesian Asbestos, Ltd., financed jointly by the Johns-Manville Corp., ... has been established to develop several asbestos properties in the Mashaba district” (Rhodesian Asbestos, Ltd.), p. 10¹
• Description: “Sinking of two shafts to a depth of 560 feet was completed during 1953” (Rhodesian Asbestos Limited), p. 14²

1954

• Buyers: “shipped to Beira ... for transport by water to J-M plants and to customers in the United States and abroad” (Rhodesian Asbestos Limited), p. 14²
• Fiber: “chrysotile” (Rhodesian Asbestos Limited), p. 12²
• Ownership: “Rhodesian Asbestos Limited is under the direction of Canadian Johns-Manville Company, Ltd., in association with British Metals Corp., Ltd. ...” (Rhodesian Asbestos Limited), p. 12²
• Mill: “there is a mill on the Mashaba mine site which can produce 150 tons of fibre a month. A new mill is well underway” (Rhodesian Asbestos Limited), p. 12²

1955

• Ownership: “Rhodesian Asbestos Limited, in which Johns-Manville has a 51 percent interest” (Rhodesian Asbestos Limited), said by Johns-Manville Corporation, as reported by Asbestos (magazine), p. 48³
• Worked: “limited production of asbestos fibre in Southern Rhodesia from the mines of Rhodesian Asbestos Limited” (Rhodesian Asbestos Limited), said by Johns-Manville Corporation, as reported by Asbestos (magazine), p. 48³

1956

• Output: “Rhodesia Asbestos (Johns Manville) 1210 tons” (Rhodesia Asbestos (Johns Manville)), p. 6⁵

1958

• Ownership: “On November 28 the Southern Rhodesian Asbestos mines of Rhodesian Asbestos Limited ... were sold to Rhodesian & General Asbestos Corporation (PVT) Limited” (Rhodesian & General Asbestos Corporation (PVT) Limited), said by Johns-Manville Corporation, as reported by Asbestos (magazine), p. 10⁶

Other names

Documents call this mine “two asbestos deposits at Mashaba in the Victoria district”, “several asbestos properties in the Mashaba district”.

See also

• Johns-Manville Corp.: the company's history, documents, people, products and plants
• All asbestos mines

References

1. Minerals Yearbook: Asbestos Chapters, 1953 (January 1, 1954), p. 10.
2. Asbestos Magazine, 1954, April 1954 (April 1, 1954), pp. 12, 14.
3. Asbestos Magazine, 1956, February 1956 (February 1, 1956), p. 48.
4. Minerals Yearbook: Asbestos Chapters, 1952 (January 1, 1953), p. 10.
5. Asbestos Magazine, 1957, April 1957 (April 1, 1957), p. 6.
6. Asbestos Magazine, 1959, January 1959 (January 1, 1959), p. 10.