Albert Ellis (prospector)

Sir Albert Fuller Ellis CMG (28 August 1869 – 11 July 1951) was a prospector in the Pacific. He discovered phosphate deposits on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Banaba (Ocean Island) in 1900. He was the British Phosphate Commissioner for New Zealand from 1921 to 1951.

Ellis was born in Roma, Queensland; his family moved to Waikato in New Zealand, where he attended the Cambridge District High School. At the age of 18, Ellis joined his brothers James and George in working for John T. Arundel and Co. Their father George C. Ellis, a chemist, and later a farmer in New Zealand, was a director of the company. John T. Arundel and Co. was engaged in Pacific trading of phosphates, copra, and pearl shell.

Phosphate rock used as door stop

While working in the company's Sydney office in 1899 Ellis determined that a large rock from Nauru being used as a doorstop was rich in phosphate. Following the discovery Ellis traveled to Ocean Island and Nauru and confirmed the discovery.

Operations on Ocean Island commenced three months after the discovery. Ellis managed the development of the phosphate resources on Nauru, and mining began in 1906 under an arrangement with the German administrators of the island. Following World War I Nauru became a mandate of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the countries appointed the British Phosphate Commission to manage the extraction and export of phosphate from Nauru. Ellis was appointed the BPC for New Zealand.

In 1928, Ellis was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, and in the 1938 King's Birthday Honours was created a Knight Bachelor.[1] Ellis wrote a book about the history of the Pacific phosphate islands, his discovery and subsequent development of the phosphate industry on the islands, Ocean Island and Nauru — their Story was published in Australia in 1935.