NMHF to induct four US mining giants

The National Mining Hall of Fame (NMHF) in the U.S. has selected four inductees for 2012: Glen A. Barton, J. David Lowell, Samuel Newhouse, and John Cleveland Osgood.

The four will formally join the ranks of 214 previous inductees in the hall of fame at a gala dinner on Sept. 22 in Las Vegas, Nev., coinciding with the MINExpo conference.

The new inductees illustrate the dynamic nature of the mining and exploration industry, excelling in equipment manufacturing, minerals exploration, and the copper and coal sectors, respectively.

“We are very proud to have the opportunity to honor these luminaries of the mining industry,” NMHF executive director Bob Hartzell says. “Each has made an indelible contribution to mining.”

Glen A. Barton (b. 1939)

Glen Barton’s leadership made Caterpillar the world’s leading provider of mining equipment by creating the roots that support the organization today.
Fresh from attaining a civil engineering degree at the University of Missouri,  Barton started at Caterpillar in 1961.

He had a global career with the company, managing operations in Europe and South America, as well as the U.S. He retired as chairman and CEO of Caterpillar in 2004.

In the late 1980s, under Barton’s leadership, Caterpillar had a critical decision to make — was mining going to be a core business of the company? Did Caterpillar have the passion to make the changes needed to products and services to support this mission? Barton’s vision led to the creation of a new breed of mining-haul truck — a truck with greater than 100 tons of capacity that operated using mechanical drive. Within three years, this new technology helped Caterpillar become the industry’s leading supplier.

But that was just the beginning. Customers needed more production, and at the lowest possible cost per ton. Glen headed the development of the Cat 797 Truck (400-ton payload), as well as large loading tools like the Cat 994 Wheel Loader.

Barton’s vision for Caterpillar in mining went beyond equipment. He spearheaded innovative agreements that created a partnership between Caterpillar, Caterpillar dealers and mining companies. He was a familiar face at mines around the world, from the Canadian Arctic to the mountains of Indonesia. He was committed to personally ensuring that Caterpillar kept its promises to the industry.

Barton brought together producers and other manufacturers to work on a single goal: how to mine more safely. This led to innovations, such as improved visibility on haul trucks.

Barton recognized that hard-rock and coal producers face many of the same issues with national governments. In the U.S., he was a driving force for the National Mining Association, which has made a positive difference for the mining industry on Capitol Hill.

Barton was a tireless champion for education. He supported the Common Ground, a Caterpillar educational film and program created for children. The film has been seen by more than 20 million people and has been recognized by the Northwest Mining Association, the National Mining Association, and Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration. He sponsored The Human Element, a comprehensive program focused on personal responsibility and safety on the mine site, since translated into eight languages and still in use at mines around the world. In 1999, Caterpillar received the Prazen Award from the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum for outstanding mining educational efforts.

Today, building upon Barton’s vision, Caterpillar is recognized everywhere as a symbol of quality and service, providing the most comprehensive mining equipment line in the world.

J. David Lowell (b. 1928)

David Lowell has been an outstanding exploration geologist and mine finder who discovered and contributed a number of major producing mines, including La Escondida in Chile, which was developed into the world’s largest copper mine, and the nearby Zaldivar-Escondida Norte orebody.

He is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on copper porphyry deposits. Among more than 50 published articles, the most notable was co-authored with John Guilbert and defines the Lowell and Guilbert Porphyry Copper Model. This article became a standard reference for exploration geologists worldwide.

Lowell received a B.S. degree in mining engineering from the University of Arizona in 1949 and an M.S. in geology from Stanford University in 1957. He obtained a professional engineering degree from the University of Arizona in 1959 and received honorary degrees from Universidad Nacional de San Marcos in Peru in 1998, and the University of Arizona in 2000.

In 2009, Lowell contributed heavily to the endowment for the Lowell Institute of Mineral Resources at the University of Arizona. In total he has contributed millions of dollars to the University of Arizona.

Lowell became an independent consultant in 1961. Between 1961 and 1990 he worked for 110 companies in 26 countries, largely in porphyry copper exploration.

In 1965, his work contributed to two discoveries in Arizona: the Kalamazoo orebody for Quintana Petroleum and the Vekol Hills deposit for Newmont Mining.

In 1975 he helped discover Casa Grande West copper deposit in Arizona and at about the same time, he made contributions to discoveries of the JA orebody in Canada, the Dizon deposit in the Philippines, and the Far Southeast orebody in the Philippines.

In 1974, Lowell began to focus on Chile, and starting in 1979, he planned and managed a contract grassroots program financed by Utah International and Getty Oil. This work led to the Escondida discovery.

In 1987, a small Chilean syndicate managed by Lowell found the 1 million oz. San Cristobal gold mine.

In early 1991, Lowell initiated a personally financed exploration program in Peru. This evolved in 1993 into a Canadian junior company named Arequipa Resources. Late in 1995, Arequipa discovered the 8-million-oz. Pierina gold orebody, which it sold in 1996 to Barrick Gold.

Subsequent work by a Lowell company, Peru Copper, developed the Toromocho copper-silver-molybdenum deposit in Peru, which Chinalco purchased for $900 million in 2007, and is now developing as a $2.7-billion project.

Another Lowell company, CIC Resources, is developing a large titanium resource in Paraguay.

Dave Lowell was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1999. He has received the SME Daniel C. Jackling and Robert Dreyer Awards, the AIME Earl McConnell Award, the SEG Silver Medal and Penrose Gold Medal, the MMSA Gold Medal, the Australian Academy of Science Haddon Forrester King Silver Medal and the Chilean Centro de Estudios de Cobre y la Mineria CESCO Award.

Samuel Newhouse (1853–1930)

Samuel Newhouse was the first to recognize the commercial potential of the Bingham Canyon, Utah, copper deposits; the first to develop a profitable underground copper mine based on the deposit’s sulphide ores; and the first to develop a large-scale surface mine based on the deposit’s porphyry copper ores. Though his accomplishments were subsequently eclipsed by Daniel Jackling and the Utah Consolidated Copper Company, Newhouse deserves recognition as the initiator of modern copper mining at Bingham Canyon.

Newhouse arrived in Utah in 1896 after 17 years as a mine speculator and developer in Leadville, Colo. In early 1896, he incorporated the Highland Boy Gold Mining Company, based on claims in the lower reaches of Bingham Canyon. The Highland Boy ore had unquestioned gold values, but before the year was out, it became apparent that the high copper values in the ore were interfering with profitable gold recovery. Late in the year, the Highland Boy’s underground miners encountered a large chimney of copper su
lphide ore. Newhouse recognized an opportunity and converted the Highland Boy to a copper mine. The mine shipped its first copper ore in 1896.

The Highland Boy changed hands twice in the next two years, first being acquired by Utah Copper and then by Standard Oil. Newhouse emerged from these transactions with US$4 million and put US$300,000 of the money to work acquiring adjoining claims atop the mountain that separated Bingham Canyon from Carr Fork. These claims had previously been worked for gold but also carried high-grade copper sulfide values and immense tonnages of low-grade porphyry copper. Newhouse established the Boston Consolidated Copper and Gold Mining Company in 1898 to develop the claims, initially producing sulphide ore by an underground caving mining method while he considered methods for commercially mining the porphyry. By 1905, an experimental mill had established that the porphyry ores could be profitably concentrated, and construction began on a 3,000-ton-per-day concentrator. Four Marion steam shovels were introduced to the surface mining operation in 1906 and 1907, the first such shovels to be used on the mountain.

Meanwhile, Utah Consolidated was working to develop porphyry ores in lower Bingham Canyon, and Utah’s Daniel Jackling recognized that the Boston and Utah properties had to be consolidated before the huge potential of the Bingham Canyon deposits could be fully realized. A merger was ratified in December 1909.

Newhouse profited hugely from the transaction and left the mining business. He turned next to real estate development in Salt Lake City, building Utah’s first two high-rises, and then in New York City.

The long-lasting and ongoing importance of Bingham Canyon as developed by Utah Copper (later Kennecott Copper) has tended to overshadow the role played by Newhouse in the Canyon’s early days. Nevertheless, Newhouse was the catalyst for modern, large-scale commercial copper production at Bingham Canyon.

John Cleveland Osgood (1851–1926)

John Cleveland Osgood was one of the founders of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company and a coal baron whose influence extended throughout the Rocky Mountain West.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1851, Osgood was orphaned by age fourteen. He learned the coal business from the ground up, attending night classes at the Peter Cooper Institute in New York and finding employment as a bookkeeper for the Union Mining Company in Iowa.

Subsequent work in a bank gave him financial experience, and he soon gained control of the White Breast Mining Company, which supplied coal to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

At age 30, Osgood was sent to Colorado to look for more coal deposits, and he reportedly inspected every coal mine in the state. He was most attracted to a large deposit that had been exposed by an avalanche. He bought the deposit and formed the Colorado Fuel Company. Aggressively adding to his coal holdings, within a few years he controlled 5,622 acres of coal land, mostly in the Crystal River Valley south of Glenwood Springs.

In 1892, Osgood’s Colorado Fuel Company merged with William J. Palmer’s Colorado Coal and Iron Company to form Colorado Fuel and Iron, with Osgood as president. Osgood controlled 69,000 acres of coal land, including 14 operating mines and four coking plants containing 800 coke ovens, producing 25,000 tons of coke monthly. His empire included 38 mining camps and rolling mills in Colorado, Wyoming and the Territory of New Mexico. By 1902, CF&I employed 15,000 men in Colorado and was the largest employer in the state. John Osgood was the undisputed fuel king of the West.

CF&I owned the Crystal River Railroad, which transported coal from the Coal Basin mine near Redstone. Osgood built the town of Redstone 30 miles south of Glenwood Springs as a social experiment to demonstrate that coal miners would be more productive if treated as gentlemen, and with cultural advantages. Near Redstone, he built a large mansion, Cleveholm, for his residence.

By 1904, Osgood was having a cash-flow problem and asked his friends John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould if they would help him financially. Soon, he learned that they had taken over his company. When told he could continue as president, he said he would not work for anyone, and resigned.

Osgood acquired the nearby Yule marble deposit in 1890 and spent 10 years turning it into a commercial marble quarry. In 1894, he supplied the marble for the floors and stairways of the Colorado Capitol building in Denver. The marble was hauled by wagon 35 miles to the railroad at Carbondale. Because of his problems with CF&I, he finally discontinued his quarry work.

Osgood still owned the Victor American Fuel Company, and the extensive labour strikes of the United Mine Workers in 1914 to 1917 adversely affected its production. For the rest of his life, he struggled to maintain his empire.

He died on Jan. 4, 1926, in the Cleveholm mansion at Redstone.