Seven inducted into National Mining Hall of Fame

Seven pioneers of North American mining have been welcomed into the U.S.-based National Mining Hall of Fame.

Only one of the inductees, Stewart Wallace, is alive; the others will be honoured posthumously at the Hall of Fame ceremony, scheduled for Sept. 8 at the Museum Convention Center in Leadville, Colo.

The keynote speaker will be Duane Smith, a history professor at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo.

Guests are encouraged to wear Victorian style attire for the induction ceremony.

Stewart Wallace (b. 1919)

Stewart Wallace, through his discoveries of the Henderson mine and the Ceresco orebody at the Climax mine, had a huge impact on molybdenum exploration in Colorado.

Wallace earned his bachelor’s degree in geology at Dartmouth College in 1941 and later completed his master’s and PhD in geology at the University of Michigan.

From 1948 through 1955, he served with the U.S. Geological Survey, mapping mineral districts in the western U.S. He then worked for the Climax Molybdenum Co., eventually becoming chief of geology and exploration.

Wallace developed a model to describe the complex magmatic and hydrothermal events that produced the Climax orebody, and this work led to the discovery of the Ceresco deposit across a major fault.

Later, his expertise led to the discovery of the Hudson Bay Mountain deposit in British Columbia.

From 1970 to 1976, Wallace served as exploration chief for Minefinders, and from 1976 onward, as a consultant to large companies such as Homestake Mining, Amax Exploration and Freeport Indonesia.

In 1974, the Society for Mining Engineers presented him with its Daniel C. Jackling Award for having discovered the Henderson orebody.

Jess Garca (1883-1907)

As a young locomotive engineer working for Phelps Dodge, Garca drove a train carrying four tons of burning dynamite away from the town of Nacozari in northwestern Mexico in November 1907. The train had caught fire near a powder magazine, where another 500 tons of dynamite were stored. About half a mile out of town, the dynamite exploded. The shock of the blast was felt 15 km away, and Garca and 13 others were killed. But thousands more were saved.

Garca was hired in 1900 at the age of 17 to work as an apprentice on the narrow-gauge short line railroad, which was used to haul workers, supplies and explosives six miles from Nacozari to the underground works of the Pilares copper mine. Garca worked his way up from waterboy, to fireman, to brakeman and finally to the status of engineer. His work was impressive enough to earn him and a few co-workers an all-expense-paid to the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Miss.

Nov. 7 is a national holiday in Mexico and Garca’s desperate deed is celebrated in both song and literature. Nacozari, about 120 km south of Douglas, Ariz., was renamed Nacozari de Garcia, in the engineer’s honour.

Ralph Kress (1904-1995)

Ralph Kress, spent almost 50 years designing and developing off-highway mining trucks.

In 1930, working as a highway truck salesman in New England, he designed an automatic clutch for his Packard automobile, received a patent, and drove the car for 35,000 miles without incident.

The vice-president of engineering at General Motors recognized Kress’s ability and suggested he get an engineering degree, and so from 1933 through 1939, he attended night school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After receiving his degree, he began working for G.M. and was later transferred to Washington, D.C. to contribute to the war effort. In March 1943, Kress received the Legion of Merit for his engineering work during the war.

In 1950, Kress became general manager of the Dart Trucking Co. in Warren, Ohio, where he helped develop full-power steering, a basic requirement for large trucks. The Kress-designed Dart 75-TA rear-dump hauled 75 tons, was the largest truck in the world at that time.

In the mid-to-late 1950s, as a consultant to WABCO, now Komatsu, Kress designed the 32-ton Haulpac, another milestone.

Five years after the release of the Haulpac, Kress joined Caterpillar, where he designed a line of 85-ton, 105-ton and 240-ton electric drive trucks.

Upon his retirement from Caterpillar in 1962, he joined his son, Ted, who had started Kress Corp. four years earlier. There, he developed the Kress bottom-dump coal hauler.

Spencer Penrose (1865-1939) and Charles Tutt (1864-1909)

Spencer Penrose and his partners, Charles Tutt and Charles MacNeill, provided financing that was crucial to the bulk-mining of low-grade copper ores at Bingham Canyon, Utah.

Penrose, a native of Philadelphia, arrived in Colorado Springs in 1892 with a Harvard University education. He joined the real estate business of Charles Tutt, and, over the next decade, the firm pursued profitable ventures in the Cripple Creek district, first in mining stock promotion and later, with Charles MacNeill as their plant-operations man, in ore processing. In 1901, the three partners organized the U.S. Reduction & Refining Co., which had seven mills processing Cripple Creek ores.

In 1902, MacNeill hired metallurgist Daniel Jackling to work at the partners’ Canon City mill. Jackling had recently studied the vast, low-grade copper deposit at Bingham Canyon and set about building a plant capable of processing the material at a profit.

The plant started up in 1904 and was an instant success. The wealthy Guggenheim family came on board in 1905 with capital needed for large-scale development. Later that year, Tutt sold his shares to Penrose and retired. Penrose remained Utah Copper’s largest shareholder until it was sold to Kennecott Copper in 1923. Penrose joined the company’s board of directors and remained there until his death.

Robert Smith (1928-1997)

Robert Smith was a force in the revival of the North American gold industry in the 1980s.

As president of Barrick Gold from 1987 to 1996, and later as vice-chairman, Smith helped build the company into one of the most respected gold companies in the world. He provided the leadership that translated the vision of Barrick’s founder and chairman, Peter Munk, into reality.

Smith developed the Goldstrike property in Nevada into the most prolific gold producer in North America. Under his leadership, Goldstrike went from a small outfit cranking out 40,000 oz. per year to a major, low-cost producer of 2 million oz. annually. This required the pioneering of large-scale autoclaving, which boosted gold recovery to 90% from 30%.

In addition, Smith revitalized the Mercur mine in Utah and helped develop the Holt-McDermott mine in Kirkland Lake, Ont., and the Meikle mine in Nevada.

Smith grew up in Haileybury, Ont., where he spent many summers prospecting. He obtained a degree in mining engineering from the University of Toronto and went on to work for Denison Mines, Iron Ore Co. of Canada, Canadian Bechtel, and Camflo Mines. When Barrick acquired Camflo in 1984, Smith became Barrick’s chief operating officer.

Smith was also chairman of the Gold Institute and a director of the National Mining Association, both of which are based in Washington D.C.

James Scott (1928-1997)

Dr. James Scott was dedicated to the science of rock mechanics and innovations in mining and mine safety. Widely known for inventing methods of ground support for underground mines, Scott was also an outstanding mining engineer and teacher.

Scott earned his B.Sc. and PhD in mining engineering from the University of Wisconsin. Early in his career, he worked at Bethlehem Steel’s Cornwall mine in Pennsylvania and quickly rose from shift foreman to head engineer. In 1963, he joined the faculty of the Missouri School of Mines in Rolla, where he became chairman of the mining department.

During a leave of absence, he collaborated with Copper Range Co., in White Pines, Mich., in developing a program in applied rock mechanics, which served as a model for many underground mines.

In 1970, Scott became assistant director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, where he contributed to a program aimed at reducing health and safety hazards for miners. He h
elped the industry comply with respiratory dust standards as set in the 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act.

In 1977, Scott assumed the role of adjunct professor of mining at the Missouri Scool of Mines and started Scott Mine Technical Services (SMTS). During this phase of his career, he developed the friction rock stabilizer, or “split-set” roof fixture.