P.S. Taverner became a member of the Chemical and Metallurgical Society of South Africa in 1896 and continued his membership when it was renamed the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa after the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). In October 1902 he read a paper before the society on "The lead smelting of zinc-gold slimes", which was published in the Proceedings (1902-1903, Vol. 3, pp. 112-159) as well as in the society's Journal (1902, Vol. 3, pp. 70-78; discussion pp. 121-123). He believed his technique to be new and expected that it would replace the current method involving treatment with sulphuric acid, calcining and pot smelting. His recent experiments indicated that the new method was quick and cheap, and led to better gold recovery. It was first introduced at the Bonanza mine in Johannesburg in August 1899. In this method the precipitate, after filter pressing (but without acid treatment or roasting), is mixed with litharge [lead monoxide], slag, sand and sawdust, and smelted in a reverberatory furnace. The zinc is fluxed off without being volatilised to any appreciable extent. The method was subsequently investigated by Harry Rusden* and came to be widely used on the Witwatersrand.
By 1905, though still a member of the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa, Taverner had left South Africa for an appointment as cyanide manager and metallurgist to Ashanti Gold Fields, Ltd., on the west coast of Africa.
