Shamala mine, four miles from the Temeraire Mine, Mashaba, Zimbabwe

The Shamala mine was a chrysotile mine in the Mashaba district of Southern Rhodesia, which Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, placed "four miles away" from the Temeraire mine.^1,3 In December 1954 the journal wrote that both mines were "highly mechanized" and that each had "sunk a mine shaft about 550 feet"; mining and milling were "carried on by Rhodesian Asbestos Limited under the direction of Canadian Johns-Manville Co., Limited."¹ The same report said that "Johns-Manville formally put two more asbestos mines into commercial production on November 25th" with the opening of a new central mill.¹ In 1956 Asbestos called the Temeraire and Shamala two of the company's most important mines, "planned to produce 300 tons an hour for treatment."³ The mining engineer W. E. Sinclair wrote in 1960 that in 1958 the Rhodesian General Asbestos Corporation, of the Turner & Newall group, "purchased the Temeraire and Shamala Mines from Rhodesian Asbestos (Johns-Manville Group), whose output was 14,385 tons."²

The documents report this mine producing asbestos fiber for sale.²

Location

Year by year

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

1954

• Ownership: “Mining and milling ... carried on by Rhodesian Asbestos Limited under the direction of Canadian Johns-Manville Co., Limited” (Rhodesian Asbestos Limited), p. 50¹
• Description: “Both are highly mechanized. Each has sunk a mine shaft about 550 feet” (Rhodesian Asbestos Limited), p. 50¹
• Opened: “Johns-Manville formally put two more asbestos mines into commercial production on November 25th” (Rhodesian Asbestos Limited), p. 50¹

1956

• Mill: “These mines are planned to produce 300 tons an hour for treatment. The construction of the mill and sorting plant will be the most up-to-date in Rhodesia” (Rhodesian Asbestos Ltd. (Johns-Manville)), p. 8³
• Exploration: “developing mines in several areas, two of the most important being the Temaraire and Shamala in the Mashaba district” (Rhodesian Asbestos Ltd. (Johns-Manville)), p. 8³

1958

• Ownership: “this Group purchased the Temeraire and Shamala Mines from Rhodesian Asbestos (Johns-Manville Group)” (Rhodesian General Asbestos Corporation Limited (Turner Newall Limited)), said by W. E. Sinclair, as reported by Asbestos (magazine), p. 10²

Other names

Documents call this mine “Shamala Mine”, “Shamala”, “Shamva”.

See also

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

References

1. Asbestos Magazine, 1954, December 1954 (December 1, 1954), p. 50.
2. Asbestos Magazine, 1960, April 1960 (April 1, 1960), p. 10.
3. Asbestos Magazine, 1956, June 1956 (June 1, 1956), p. 8.