Sons of Gwalia hosted the Fortieth General Assembly of the T.I.C. in the beautiful city of Perth, Western Australia, from October 24th to 26th 1999, which was heralded as a great success. More than 150 member company delegates, their guests and spouses enjoyed the technical and social programme, plant tours and sightseeing, and the delightful spring sunshine.

The General Assembly of the association elected three new members — Crystal Technology, Inc., Fujitsu Media Devices Limited, Malaysia Smelting Corporation Bhd. — bringing total membership to 54 companies. The annual accounts were approved and a stable financial position was noted. The T.I.C. announced the appointment of a Technical Promotion Officer, Mr C. Edward Mosheim, who would be making every effort to bring tantalum and niobium to the attention of a wider world.

Mr John Linden, Head of Marketing in the Minerals Division at Sons of Gwalia, brought to a close an active year as President of the T.I.C. by organising this meeting in Perth. Mr Charles Culbertson II, President and Chief Operating Officer of Kemet Corporation, was elected President for the coming year. Dr Harry Stuart retired from the Executive Committee after many years’ service including holding the Presidency in 1988-89. Mr Tadeu Carneiro of Reference Metals was elected to the Committee.

As this meeting saw the twenty-fifth anniversary of the foundation of the T.I.C., a video recording of greetings from ‘Old Friends’ was shown, bringing great pleasure to the assembled group as they recognised players from earlier days in the industry.

A cocktail reception by the pool welcomed the visitors to Perth. Sons of Gwalia were the hosts for a splendid gala dinner in the exclusive setting of the Lake Karrinyup Country Club, where an accomplished player of the didgeridoo entertained fascinated guests while they sipped apéritifs. When the after-dinner speaker was introduced, the audience assumed suitably solemn expressions, but bemusement turned to hilarity as they realised that his speciality was jokes rather than any serious aspect of management consultancy, and they had been hoaxed but in the nicest way.

On Tuesday October 26th, one group set off to the south by bus to tour the ever expanding mine at Greenbushes, source of much of the world’s tantalum raw materials. Meanwhile another, smaller, group left northwards by aircraft and bus to visit the Wodgina mine, also a supply of high grade tantalite: a comprehensive visit to the extraction site and concentrating plant, recently commissioned, was most informative. Both these trips to the installations of Sons of Gwalia were highly appreciated by the participants, who learned a great deal about reserves, resources and mining methods.

Technical programme

Copies of some of these presentations are available from the T.I.C.:

• Production expansion at Greenbushes and Wodgina tantalum mines, by Mr David Bale, General Manager - Minerals Division, Sons of Gwalia Ltd.
• Supply and availability of low grade slags in South East Asia, by Mr Yeap Soon Sit, Managing Director, S.A. Minerals
• Production of niobium and tantalum from the Pitinga hard rock tin mine, by Mr Jorge Jose Correia Salles, Marketing and Strategic Planning Manager, Paranapanema
• New developments in powder technology, by Mr Tomoo Izumi, Manager R&D, Showa Cabot Supermetals
• Production of superalloys in Western Australia, by Mr Kyle Abbott, Managing Director, Western Australian Specialty Alloys
• Niobium in special applications, by Mr Tadeu Carneiro and Dr Harry Stuart, Reference Metals Company Inc.
• The role of tantalum capacitors in mobile telephony, by Mr Søren Kjaer, Components Engineer, Research and Development, Copenhagen, and Ms Merja Kangas, Component Engineer, Passive Components, Salo Finland, Nokia Mobile Phones

Panel discussion: Structure and future

• Mr Peter Lalor, CEO, Sons of Gwalia Ltd
• Mr Peter Kählert, H.C. Starck GmbH & Co KG
• Mr Kennett Burnes, Cabot Corporation