Page 27 - Bulletin 14 2010

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However, in 1882 Robert (later Sir Robert) Hadfield, an eminent British metallurgist, made a
remarkable discovery. Steel was tough but not very hard, while cast iron was hard but brittle.

Hadfield was therefore searching for a material which possessed the toughness of steel with
the hardness of cast iron. Eventually he discovered that an iron-manganese alloy possessed

just those qualities - as well as being remarkably resistant to abrasion. This discovery was to

change the face of metallurgy throughout the world - and perhaps even the very nature of
Western society itself - and make manganese one of the most important of all alloying

elements, a quality which it retains to this day in numerous extremely important products such
as railway tracks. It also meant that manganese deposits now assumed greater importance and

were eagerly sought throughout the world.

Given the importance of manganese as an alloying element it is surprising that it was only in

1893 that the ore from the Hout Bay deposit was assayed, apparently for the first time. This
was carried out by Mr. P. Lee of the South African College laboratory who found that it

contained between 76% and 83% of manganese dioxide. 33

Silence then descended upon the Hout Bay deposits until in 1905 a Mr A. K. Morrison
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applied for permission to prospect in the Forest Reserve at Hout Bay. There is no record as
to whether his application for a prospector’s licence was successful, or what he discovered,

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but it is significant that on 5 of September that year the Cape Manganese Ore Company Ltd.,
was registered in London, one of its purposes being “to acquire from E. T. Boxall, H. Van den

Bergh, and H. S. McKinnon mining rights over an area of 46 morgen in the Hout Bay Forest

Reserve, Constantia, Cape Colony.” The purchase consideration was £61,060, payable £1,060
cash and £60,000 in full-paid shares. 35

The year 1909 marked a turning point in the history of mining in Hout Bay for in June that

year the Memorandum and Articles of Association of ‘Hout Bay Manganese Ltd.’ were
registered in Cape Town, with the first Annual General meeting of the company being held in

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Cape Town on the 9 of July.

However, development work on the mine must have been proceeding well before the

registration of the company for in March of that same year the important London weekly