:: Ian Chaston 1931-2014

Taken from the Saint Barbara newsletter

It is with great sadness that we report that Ian Chaston passed away this year. All of us at Saint Barbara send our condolences to his family and friends.

Ian graduated from the Royal School of Mines with a BSc in Mineral Processing. He had a broad international mineral processing background and worked and consulted at several major mining companies. Ian was an acknowledged expert in mineral processing and in particular gravity separation techniques, in which field he developed new equipment and published extensively.

Although retired in recent years, Ian had been an Associate Consultant with Saint Barbara since 1993, soon after its inception. During his association with Saint Barbara, Ian spent time in Indonesia, Malaysia, New Caledonia, the Philippines and Singapore involved with the shipping of nickel laterite ores.

Ian was an avid sailor with his own ocean going yacht and he frequently sailed across the Atlantic to the Caribbean (and back!). He was always happy to tell of his adventures to anyone who would listen at the Last Thursday Mining Sundowner. Ian was a prominent feature of mining seminars in London and would always ask searching questions.

In 1999 Ian published a book “Rounding the Horn”, which is the story of Ian buying a yacht and sailing from Vancouver to Acapulco, and then single-handed round the Horn to the Falkland Islands. He was a true “character” in our industry and will be sadly missed.