US National Mining Hall of Fame’s five new inductees

The National Mining Hall of Fame (NMHF) in the U.S. has announced five new inductees representing a cross section of the U.S. mining industry, coming from the domestic and worldwide metal production, education and health and safety sectors. 

Charles F. Barber, Donald W. Gentry, Patrick H. O’Neill, Milton H. Ward and David A. Zegeer will join 218 other U.S. mining industry pioneers who share the distinction for excelling in the field.

NMHF chairman Paul Jones describes the inductees as “classic examples of the leadership and work ethic that has made America’s mining industry the world leader in technically sound, environmentally and socially correct, and economical mineral production that sets the standards for mining worldwide.”

The NMHF has also given the 2013 Prazen Living Legend of Mining award to the Nevada Mining Association for its work educating Nevadans about the importance of minerals and mining for more than a century. 

The 26th annual induction banquet and ceremony is set for Sept. 14, 2013 in Denver. For reservations, please contact Kat Neilson at info@mininghalloffame.org or 1-719-486-1229. More information is available at www.mininghalloffame.org.

Charles F. Barber
(1917-2012)

Charles Barber was a top executive at leading U.S. metals producer Asarco from 1956 to 1982. He joined Asarco as general counsel in 1956 and was elected executive vice-president in 1963 and president in 1969. He served as chairman and CEO from 1971 to 1982. 

During his tenure, Asarco responded successfully to the demanding requirements of new environmental legislation in the U.S and to changing concepts of foreign investment in mining, especially in Latin America. 

During the 1970s Southern Peru Copper (owned 51.5% and managed by Asarco) developed the trailblazing Cuajone copper project in Peru. Barber took the lead in arranging the complex financing of more than $600 million for the project, which came into production in 1976. 

The Cuajone project itself was a joint venture between Southern Peru (88.5%) and Billiton, B.V. (11.5%), a Netherlands company, owned by the Royal Dutch Shell oil company. The other partners in Southern Peru were Cerro (22.25%), Phelps Dodge (16%), and Newmont Mining (10.25%).

The financing arrangements included 54 major banks or financial institutions in Japan, the U.S, Canada, the U.K. and Europe; the Export Credit Guarantee Department of the U.K; the Export-Import Bank of the U.S; and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank. 

The Cuajone mine is located at an elevation of 12,000 feet in the Peruvian Andes. Development included an open-pit mine, a 45,000-tons-per-day concentrator, and a 135-mile concentrate pipeline to the Ilo smelter on the coast. Infrastructure accounted for 50% of the total project cost. 

Barber’s role in arranging financing for the Cuajone project had wide-ranging impacts beyond the project itself. The project was a template for things to come. It recognized the need for future investments in risky parts of the world. The word “gamble” was applied to the project, but it was a gamble tempered with calculation. 

Charles Barber was for many years an active participant in the work of the American Mining Congress and served for three years as its chairman. In this capacity, he played a leading role in the mining industry’s response to demanding new environmental legislation. 

Barber graduated from Northwestern University, Harvard Law School and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He served five years in the U.S. Navy during World War II, including service as Aide and Flag Secretary to Admiral R. A. Spruance, commander of the Fifth Fleet in the Pacific. 

In 1976, he was named an honorary doctor of laws by the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology. In 1981, he received the honorary degree of doctor of engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

Barber was a noted author and lecturer and provided active leadership in numerous organizations concerned with education, the law, international relations and the mining community.

Donald W. Gentry
(1943-2012)

Donald Gentry’s career took him from being a working mining engineer, to renowned mining educator, to mining consultant, to respected mining company corporate director, to president and CEO of mining companies. 

As an educator, Gentry had a positive impact upon hundreds, if not thousands, of new mining engineers and many others who took his short courses in mine economics. His students have been leaders in the mining industry around the world. His influence spread to the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration as well as the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), both of which he served as president. In 1991 he received AIME’s Mineral Industry Education award, just one of the many other awards and honours he received over his career in education, engineering and the mining industry. He was also a member of the National Academy of Engineering. 

Gentry was a prolific technical writer, publishing papers about mining engineering, education and economics. He co-authored “Mine Investment Analysis,” with Thomas J. O’Neil. This 510-page, multi-purpose text serves three objectives. First, it is a wonderful tool for teaching mine valuation concepts and procedures, as well as the principles of capital budgeting to undergraduate students studying minerals engineering. Second, it provides a solid foundation for graduate work in the area of mine valuation and may stimulate students to pursue work on some of the difficult issues presented. Third, it provides a valuable reference for industrial practitioners working in the area of mine investment analysis. 

Gentry worked as a mining engineer for Anaconda Copper, Kennecott Copper and NL Industries. Later he served on the boards of directors of Santa Fe Pacific Gold, Newmont Mining, Newmont Gold, Polymet Mining (where he also served as president and CEO from 1998 to 2003), Constellation Copper, Gryphon Gold and El Capitan Precious Metals. 

Gentry consulted for many mining companies as well as many U.S. federal government agencies, including the Executive Office of the President on considering and formulating government policies as they relate to mineral resources and their development in the U.S.

Gentry held B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD degrees in mining engineering from the University of Illinois, Mackay School of Mines, and University of Arizona, respectively. He taught mining engineering at the University of Arizona before joining the mining engineering department of the Colorado School of Mines, where he served 26 years as a professor, head of the department and ultimately the dean of engineering. He retired from the Colorado School of Mines in 1998 as a professor emeritus of mining engineering. 

Patrick H. O’Neill
(b. 1915)

Born in 1915 and raised in Cordova, Alaska, Patrick O’Neill began his mining career on a dredge at the early age of 15. He earned two degrees in mining engineering at the University of Alaska while working at the U.S. Smelting, Refining and Mining Co. in the Fairbanks area. After war service as a pilot from 1941 to 1946, he returned to Fairbanks to work for U.S. Smelting, starting as an engineer and ascending through various leadership positions to become superintendent of seven gold dredges in Alaska. 

I
n 1953, O’Neill was chief engineer and manager at South American Gold and Platinum — a gold and platinum dredging operation in Colombia. At the time, the company was plagued with poor profitability due to social problems that included employee illiteracy, poverty-level wages, inadequate housing and poor medical conditions. Patrick became an outspoken advocate for corporate policies that struck the right balance between profitability, social responsibility and environmental stewardship. As COO, O’Neill became an industry leader in calling for measures to improve the health, education, training and safety of employees. His significant measures to address employee social issues demonstrated how social responsibility contributed to profitability and greater mining efficiency. O’Neill’s commitment to innovative social programs as part of mining operations helped change the way mines worked with their workers and communities throughout Latin America. 

O’Neill’s formidable leadership qualities propelled him to serve as the chairman or as a director of such important mining companies as International Mining, Frontino Gold Mines, Placer Development, Fresnillo and Rosario Resources. These companies discovered, developed and operated some of the Western World’s greatest precious metals resources, including some that are still operating. 

Furthermore, for more than 30 years O’Neill provided practical management oversight of mining operations throughout Latin America. These operations employed thousands of people and helped the U.S. mining industry provide leadership in the development and operation of international mines. 

O’Neill remains active in community affairs, including serving 15 years as chairman of the board of the Joslin Diabetes Center and he is a member of several professional organizations. His alma mater awarded him an honorary doctorate of science degree in 1976 in recognition of his professional achievements and his service to the university.

Milton H. Ward
(1932 – 2011)

Milton Ward’s experience covered the world and spectrum of metals, minerals and ores, ranging from antimony to zinc and from Australia to Zambia. During his career, he directed or was responsible for exploration, planning, development, processing, smelting, marketing and other activities in the mineral industry on six continents. 

His approach to work was driven by a desire to keep abreast of new techniques and an ability to gain the support of all levels of the operations for which he had responsibility, all of which led to cost reductions and improved performance, morale and profitability. 

Ward relished creating and growing shareholder value for mining companies. 

He was president, chairman and CEO for Cyprus Amax Minerals from 1992 to 1999, and he was president and COO of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold from 1983 to 1992, during which time he was instrumental in developing the company’s world-class Indonesian operations. 

Ward’s success and rise to the upper ranks of management was fostered by the support of a wonderful cadre of individuals, who helped him meet the challenges of the business in a creative and cost effective manner. Preceding Freeport, he was vice-president of operations for Ranchers Exploration, and prior to that he was general manager of Homestake Mining’s United Nuclear-Homestake Partners mines. His introduction to mining was as a miner, engineer and supervisor with San Manuel Copper. 

Ward was the recipient of numerous minerals-industry accolades. He was elected to the American Mining Hall of Fame in 1993 and was the New York Copper Club’s Copper Man of the Year in 1995. He received AIME’s William Saunders Gold Medal in 1990, the SME’s Daniel C. Jackling award in 1993 and he was elected a Distinguished Member of SME in 1989.

Ward enjoyed the structured learning and definitive goals provided by formal education. While working through the corporate ranks, he earned a PhD from University of London’s Royal School of Mines. In addition, while working, he earned an M.Sc. from the University of Alabama, where he is a member of the university’s hall of fame, and an MBA from University of New Mexico’s Anderson School of Management, where he is also in the hall of fame. 

Prior to his life in mining, Ward earned a B.Sc. from the University of Alabama. In 1994, he was awarded an honorary PhD by the Colorado School of Mines. 

Ward was of humble beginnings, and he often cited joining the Boy Scouts of America as a turning point in his life. With the Scouts, he proved that he held the makings of success. Later in life, from 1998 to 2000, was the national president of the Boy Scouts of America. 

Ward was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Museum of Natural History. He was president of the New Orleans Art Museum and participated in the direction of many other city, state and national museums, universities, and hospitals.

David A. Zegeer
(1922 – 2012)

As a corporate mining executive, head of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and as a community leader, David Zegeer dedicated his mining career to protecting the health and safety of miners.

His tenure at MSHA coincided with a period of remarkable progress in U.S. mining safety. As Assistant Secretary of Labor from 1983 to 1987 under U.S. President Ronald Reagan, mining fatalities in the coal, metal and non-metal mining industries decreased to historic lows. 

Zegeer began his mining career with Consolidation Coal in Jenkins, Kentucky, in 1946 after graduating from West Virginia University with a B.Sc. in engineering management and serving two years in the U.S. Army Engineers. 

When Consolidation Coal’s holdings were sold to Bethlehem Steel in 1956, he became manager and division superintendent responsible for four underground mines and four preparation plants employing 1,400 people. 

During his 21-year career with Bethlehem, Zegeer introduced the first longwall system in Kentucky, the first shortwall system, the first Lee-Norris continuous miner and the use of 30-ton mine cars. Under his supervision, the division’s accident rate declined from approximately 12 accidents per million employee hours to less than one. He hired the first women for underground coal mining positions in the U.S. and led efforts to integrate and provide gender and racial diversity in the supervisory and management positions for the operations he managed. 

Upon his retirement in 1977, Zegeer became a highly sought-after mining consultant. A recognized expert on mine explosions, he led or participated in efforts to recover survivors of mine explosions or investigations of explosions in numerous states, Nova Scotia, South Africa and Australia.

As Assistant Secretary of Labor, he emphasized his personal safety philosophy of the “Three E’s” — education, engineering, and enforcement. He championed the U.S. Labor Department’s first program dealing specifically with substance abuse in the workplace and encouraged specialized training courses on safety for areas such as mine supervision, coal mine ventilation and roof falls. 

In the area of health care, Zegeer was a board member and later two-term chairman of the Appalachian Regional Hospitals, a 10-member hospital group established by the United Mine Workers of America to serve West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. His numerous industry awards include the Donald S. Kingery Award in 1976 from MSHA; the Erskine Ramsey Medal in 1976 and the Percy W. Nic
holls Award in 1986 from AIME; and the Howard N. Eavenson Award in 1988 from SME. He was the inaugural inductee into the Kentucky Mining Hall of Fame in 2002. 

Zegeer’s heart has always been in his adopted hometown of Jenkins, Kentucky. In 1998, the community named the local museum “The David A. Zegeer Coal and Railroad Museum,” which is a tourist attraction furnished with historical artifacts.