Background
Ian Birt Dillon was born on April 18, 1915, at Gatooma.
Ian Birt Dillon was born on April 18, 1915, at Gatooma.
Educated at Gatooma, Hartley and then at St George’s College, Salisbury.
After mixing mining with running a trading store he became a government mine manager from 1954 to 1959. For the same period he was councillor for Belingwe-Shabani and then was elected MP for Shabani. As a stepping stone to the cabinet he was Deputy Minister of Mines and Lands.
Once in the cabinet he did much to increase the exploitation of minerals which could be sold for much-needed bard currency when economic sanctions sealed off Rhodesia from so many other sources of revenue. One of his more far-sighted projects was launched on August 16, 1972, at a time when gold prices showed substantial rises: a new loan policy encouraging men with experience but little capital to return to mining.