On Sunday (July 21) it will be 50 years since the 1969 Moon Landing which may not have taken place had not magnesite from Young been involved.
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In 1951, my father, Vincent (Vin) Giuliano, established Young Mining Company Pty Ltd and Causmag Ore Company Pty Ltd at Young, by forming a syndicate with four Melbourne businessmen and himself.
Just three years prior to that year, Vin Giuliano had formed a business syndicate with the same men to buy The Young Witness from Messrs Wales and Collins, the previous owners - and that had proved to be successful.
Up until this time The Young Witness was the longest continuing published newspaper in NSW and as far as I know that still applies up to today.
Vin appointed his younger brother, Victor (Vic) Giuliano, as managing director of the mining and smelting companies, with the responsibility of establishing the two companies from the ground up - one at Thuddungra to mine the magnesite located there; the other at Young, to smelt the raw magnesite into (two centimetre long pieces, or as a fine powder, known as) magnesium oxide.
Only 11 countries mine magnesite: China, Turkey, Russia, Brazil, Austria, Slovakia, Australia, Greece, Spain, North Korea and the USA in that descending order of world production. Magnesite is a reasonably rare, white mineral and mined in an open cut (just like coal, but the exact opposite colour) and with the added benefit that it is a fire-resistant rock.
- During the late 1940s to early 1960s the Australian and the UK governments looked at the idea of building their headquarters out of magnesite bricks in the hopes they would be fire-resistant to ATOMIC warfare! The managing director of Causmag was involved in many top-level discussions.
- The Cold War with Russia was very big on the world's agenda and an atomic war was often imminent as tensions mounted!
- Young Mining's biggest customer was BHP Australia, which bought Thuddungra magnesite to make bricks of pure magnesite to use in their giant furnaces that smelted metals. Ordinary bricks cracked and crumbled under the extreme heat of the massive furnaces, but bricks made from magnesite lasted much, much, longer. (They eventually crumbled, but months or years later, compared to ordinary bricks.)
Something to remember this Monday, July 21: Early in the 1960s, the United States Government contacted Causmag Ore Company Pty Ltd at Young and told the managing director there (Vic Giuliano), that they had scoured the world and according to the US government letter, 'the purest magnesite in the world was found in the magnesite mine at Thuddungra'.
Note: Also, according to the US government, Young's magnesite (i.e. magnesium oxide) was 99.95 per cent pure.
The US government wanted to buy Young's magnesite after it had been smelted and only if the 99.95 per cent purity standard was maintained.
My uncle, Vic, investigated the cost of such a guarantee and decided that it would not be worth Causmag's while to take up the request without a long-term contract.
He knew Causmag would need specialist equipment and it would be very expensive.
He consequently advised the US government that Causmag would need a 20-year contract to warrant the cost of tooling to maintain the 99.95%.
The US government wrote back and said they only ever give one-year contracts and Vic replied, "thank you, but no thank you, we do not need your business!"
The US government then wrote back and said they would sign a 20-year contract.
Historic Point number one:
Young Mining and Causmag had the longest ever (to that date) US contract in the world!
The US Government insisted on secrecy and Vic had to sign a non-disclosure letter.
While Causmag was never informed of the actual use of the 99.95 per cent product, a regular customer was General Electric in the United States as well as big pharmaceutical companies.
I am of the opinion that because of its extremely low metal content, Young's magnesite was used to make the fire-proof tiles that protect the space craft from burning up upon re-entry to earth's atmosphere.
Historic point number two:
- There was no space program before 1961 so there was no requirement for such a pure product from the US government.
- The search of the world for purity of a magnesite product because of the vital requirement of not having the space craft destroyed upon its return to earth's atmosphere.
- The intense secrecy behind the order. Remember, Russia was in the space race, also.
- Without such heat-proof tiles there would be no safe space program!
So, the telescope at Parkes NSW brought in the first photos of man walking on the moon and I believe Young's magnesite mine provided the vital fire-proof tiles to allow Apollo II to return.
Consider that next Monday (July 21) our time, when you relive Apollo 11's moon landing 50 years ago! One giant leap for mankind - made possible by Young's magnesite?
