John Rayfield
RAYFIELD, John William (1864-1910)
Rayfield was born in Bendigo and commenced work in the Bendigo mines at an early age. In 1884 he moved to South Australia where he worked as an engineer at a number of mines. He then spent nine years working in New England and Queensland as a mining consultant and a manager of mines and processing works.
In 1896 Rayfield moved to Western Australia where he opened up Cue No.1 gold mine in the Murchison Goldfield and operated the mine until the company was floated. He did the same for the Lake Way gold mine for the Western Australian Goldfields Ltd. In 1897 he moved to Menzies (NCGF) where he was the consulting mining engineer to three gold mines, the Florence gold mine, Lady Shenton gold mine, and Menzies Alpha Leases gold mine.
In 1902-04 he was manager of the Lady Shenton GM which was the largest gold producer in the Menzies district. In each of the five years from 1898 to 1902 the mine produced over 20 thousand bullion ounces of gold. Its peak production of 25 thousand bullion ounces, in 1901, was the thirteenth highest total produced by a WA mine in that year (and the ninth for a mine outside Kalgoorlie). However, production fell off rapidly in 1903 and Rayfield closed the mine in 1904.
Rayfield was an enthusiastic inventor of improvements to mining and ore processing equipment. In 1901 he applied for WA patent 3539 'Improved tap for filter press' and also for WA patent 3158 'Process of direct smelting and purifying gold precipitates or base bullion' with C.E. Manta. In 1902 he applied for WA patent 3740 'An improved safety cage' 1902 with C. Robinson.
Rayfield was the mayor of Menzies in 1901.
J W Rayfield died in Sydney on June 28, 1910.
References:
GG 1901 p.72, 1902 p.1187;
Skinner 1899, 1903, 1904;
JCMWA 1902, 1904;
RH.Kalg tab 4;
Thiel pp.666 67
