Adam Boyd
BOYD, Adam Alexander, MAustIMM MIMM MAIME (1866-1948)
Adam Boyd, mining engineer, was born at Eastwood near Glasgow, Scotland. Educated at the Glasgow Technical College he was articled to Dixon and Marshall, civil and mining engineers, and at the age of twenty-two was granted his certificate as a coal mine manager. He migrated to Australia, becoming Assistant Mine Manager of the Bellambi Colliery near Newcastle in 1891 and in 1893 was appointed to a similar position at the Newcastle Wallsend Colliery. In 1898 he was appointed Mine Manager for the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited, then Australia's premier mine. During his thirteen years at Broken Hill, Boyd revolutionized mining practice at the "Big Mine". He devised better methods of square-set timbering and introduced water curtains for combating underground mine fires. In 1911 he returned to coal mining at the Wallsend Colliery.
In 1913 Boyd was appointed General Superintendent of Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company Ltd's mine in central Queensland and in 1915 became General Manager of the company. Mount Morgan was to be his life until his retirement. Prior to his arrival at Mount Morgan the large, open, underground stopes had resulted in serious rockfalls so that costly square-setting with fill was necessary to combat "the creep" in the mine. Wartime shortages of equipment and a fixed price for copper further limited the mine' profitability. During and after the war the company was plagued by many strikes, costs continued to rise and Boyd proposed a 20 per cent cut in all wages, salaries, and directors' fees in order to keep the mine going, but when this was rejected the operation was closed. On resumption, a year later, there were further industrial problems, a collapse in the underground workings and rowdy mob demonstrations, culminating in an underground fire in September 1925, which closed the mine; a subsequent flood, in 1928, filled the stopes. Boyd remained calm throughout and, with the aid of an American expert, proposed a scheme of open-cut mining. Its expected profitability was doubtful, the company was liquidated and subsidiary companies and moveable assets were sold.
A recent historian has written: The worst excesses of mob action had closed the Mount Morgan mine. Now self-sacrifice and co-operation were to set it back on its feet. Adam Boyd was not a man to be beaten, the dour Scot with dogged determination put his faith and funds into the mine... in a seemingly futile bid to achieve prosperity. *
In July 1929 Mount Morgan Ltd was formed with a subscribed capital of 85,000 pounds to reopen the mine; Boyd was a director and consulting engineer, refusing a fee for the latter position. In 1930 he became manager at 10 pounds per week but depression conditions and low copper prices compounded the new company's problems. Boyd visited the USA and was convinced modern flotation processes could treat the Mount Morgan ore. Eventually funds were found in loans from the Commonwealth and State governments and the new processes put to work. The result was excellent, the shareholders raised funds, government loans were repaid and the first dividend was paid in December 1933. The rest of the 1930s was spent in developing the open-cut and in expansion; Boyd retired as General Manager in 1935, remaining on the board of directors. Boyd then managed Mount Morgan Developments Ltd, a company with prospecting areas in various parts of Australia, New Guinea and Fiji, but unfortunately without success. Mount Morgan Ltd continued to prosper, expanding its open-cut, installing new plant and resuming copper smelting. Boyd became Chairman of Mount Morgan Ltd in 1938, retiring in 1941, at the age of seventy-five, after twenty-eight years' service with the two companies.
"In his relations with the men, his humanity and sense of justice seldom if ever erred and in consequence he earned their respect and co-operation", was said of Boyd by the President of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, on the occasion of the presentation to him of the Institute's highest honour, its Medal, in 1941.
Boyd died in Brisbane on 16 December 1948. He and his wife had two daughters and a son. He is remembered as the saviour of Mount Morgan.
References:
Eminent Queensland Engineers Vol 1 is available here.
'Adam A. Boyd', Q.G.M.J., Vol. 51 (1950), pp. 479-80;
ADB, Vol. 7, pp. 370-71, * John Kerr, 'Mount Morgan:
Gold, Copper and Oil' (Brlsb, 1982).
