Frederick Allsop

ALLSOP, Frederick William ABalSM, FCS, FMetSoc (1865 1932)

Born in Auckland, New Zealand and educated at Ballarat High School and the Ballarat School of Mines, Allsop moved to South Africa in ca.1893 where he worked as a metallurgical chemist for the African Gold Recovery Company. He established the first cyanide works in the Spitkop district of the Transvaal and was a foundation member of the South African Metallurgical and Chemical Society. He returned to Victoria in ca.1896 and set up the first cyanide plant at the Ballarat School of Mines. At Tongio West, near Cassilis in Victoria, he established, with his brother, a Siemens and Halske electro precipitation plant in which gold was precipitated on lead foil. In 1901 he commenced practice as a consulting metallurgist and became vice president of the Institution of Assayers and Metallurgists of Victoria.

After 1905 he moved to Western Australia and established a metallurgical practice in Kalgoorlie, initially, from 1907, with Bertram Howells and from 1910 with David H. Don. The Allsop and Don partnership in 1914 took over the mill formerly operated by Hainault GMs Ltd before that company merged with South Kalgurli GMs Ltd to form South Kalgurli Consolidated GMs Ltd. A loan made to the partners by the Department of Mines for the mill’s conversion to a public battery was repaid in 1916.

Allsop was a Kalgoorlie town councillor in 1917 and a municipal councillor from November 1921 until November 1927, during which time he was the Mayor of Kalgoorlie from 1922 to 1927. He was Western Australian National Party MLC for the North East Province from May 1930 to September 1932.

__References__: Clark pp. 317 18; Battye 2, p.896; RDM 1914 p.70, 1916 p.47; MER June 1918, p.285; KM 10 Sep 1932; Reid pp.110 11; DWAE 5; Black and Bolton 2