National Mining Hall of Fame to induct five more

U.S. mining industry leaders TS Ary, Frank F Aplan, Ralph E Bailey, John Campbell Greenway and Edward Steidle will be inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame at a banquet on Oct. 23, 2015, in Pittsburgh, Pa. Based in Leadville, Colo., the institution will also honour the Powell River Project Research & Education Center this year. For more information visit www.mininghalloffame.org 

T.S. Ary

1925–2009

T.S. Ary was a leader in mineral exploration and a champion of economically and environmentally sustainable mineral policies for the nation. A mining engineering graduate from Stanford University with graduate studies in mineral law, land management, international studies and business, Ary served as a U.S. navy carrier pilot in World War II before starting his professional career in 1951 with the Anaconda Mining in Butte, Mont. He was a shift boss and assistant superintendent at several mines before moving into Anaconda’s geology department.

He joined Union Carbide in 1953 as a mining engineer and superintendent of a vanadium mine in Rifle, Colorado and named vice-president of Union Carbide Exploration in 1967. In 1975, he joined Utah International as vice-president of exploration and director of development. He was appointed president of Kerr-McGee’s Minerals Exploration division in Oklahoma City, Okla., in 1980. While at Kerr-McGee, he was responsible for worldwide hard mineral and coal exploration, as well as land acquisition and management functions of all operating divisions except oil and gas.

A prolific author and advocate for the mining industry, Ary was a recognized authority on mineral policy. He served on the U.S. State Department Task Force to the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention and the Mineral Advisory Committee to the Department of Commerce. He chaired both the Minerals Availability Committee of the American Mining Congress and the Natural Resources Committee of the National Association of Manufacturers. He served four years on the National Strategic Materials and Minerals Program Advisory Committee to the Secretary of the Interior. He also served as director of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, chairman of the Colorado Plateau Section of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, and director of the Colorado Public Expenditures Council. He was recognized for his leadership in the industry through receipt of the AIME Robert Earl McConnell Award in 1993, and the SME President’s Citation in 1992.

In 1988, Ary was sworn in as the eighteenth director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1988, serving under U.S. presidents Reagan and Bush. Under his leadership, the Bureau of Mines advanced a number of technologies that advanced the industry: self-rescue equipment that allowed miners to breathe when caught in underground disasters; production processes for specialty metals; techniques to recover strategic and critical minerals to reduce U.S. vulnerability to import blockages; making man-made wetlands to limit pollution of waterways by acid mine drainage; methods to minimize subsidence impacts; improved recycling of metals, plastic and paper from municipal wastes; and using bacteria to remove arsenic and cyanide from wastewater.

 

Frank F. Aplan

(b. 1923)

Frank Aplan is among the most influential mineral processing leaders in industry and academia. His studies of the processes involved in the preparation of coal and ores are acknowledged worldwide for their broad applicability. An authority on flotation, Aplan is especially known for his studies of  wetting solids and their control through the adsorption of surfactant films, and for his work on the effects of atomic defects on properties, and behavior of solid-liquid interfaces.

Born in Boulder, Colo., in 1923, Aplan acquired an interest in the chemistry of paints at the age of 10. He enrolled in the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 1941, but his studies were interrupted by four years serving his country as an army combat infantryman during World War II. He was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Bronze Star, and was discharged in 1946, returning to complete his studies at “Mines” in 1948. He went on to earn master’s and doctorate degrees from Montana School of Mines in 1950 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1957.

Working at the Homestake, Climax, and Day mines grew the skills for which Aplan is now recognized: integrating theory with practice in processing  coal, ores and industrial minerals. From 1957 to 1968, he rose from research engineer to group manager of research and development for Union Carbide. He later came to chair the Mineral Processing Department at Pennsylvania State University in 1968.

Aplan has made outstanding contributions to education in minerals and solid fuels processing. He supervised over 50 graduate students in mineral processing and introduced thousands of undergraduates to the concepts of solids processing. He authored over 150 publications in prestigious journals and symposia that continue to illuminate mineral processing aspirants with his findings and knowledge.

His excellence in teaching was affirmed when he received the student-nominated Wilson Outstanding Teaching Award at Penn State. He was awarded the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Metallurgy and Mineral Processing for Penn State in 1999. He has received prestigious awards of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME): Richards Award, SME Distinguished Member, Taggart Award, AIME Honorary Member, Gaudin Award and Percy Nichols Award. In 1989, the United Engineering Foundation created the Frank F. Aplan Award in his name “to recognize engineering and scientific contributions that further the understanding of the processing of minerals.” That same year, Aplan was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the highest recognition that an engineer can achieve for his “contributions to education and research in the mineral industry through the integration of theory and practice covering metallic ores, industrial minerals and coal.”

 

Ralph E. Bailey

(b. 1924)

Ralph E. Bailey is a distinguished veteran of the coal industry. The former chairman and CEO of Conoco, Bailey helped mastermind the largest corporate merger of its day when Conoco was acquired by DuPont in 1981. He is regarded not only for his impressive accomplishments as an executive, but also for his staunch commitment to safety, engineering and improving mine operations.

Born in Indiana on March 23, 1924, Bailey married Bettye J. Holder of Elberfeld, Ind., in 1945. He graduated from Purdue University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1949 and joined Peabody Coal (formerly Northern Illinois Coal) as an engineer in 1949, eventually becoming executive vice-president in 1964. While at Peabody, his leadership and creativity paved the way for a new generation of giant shovels and draglines. 

In 1965 he joined Consolidation Coal (Consol) as vice-president, and became its president and CEO in 1975. During his tenure at Consol, Bailey  implemented many new concept
s, including the first longwall system to operate in eastern bituminous coal at the Shoemaker Mine in 1973. Longwall mining was an advance in underground mine productivity and is now the standard for efficient underground mining. Bailey’s namesake the Bailey mine and its nearby sister mine Enlow Fork in southwestern Pennsylvania are among the most productive and higher-volume underground coal mines in the U.S.

 Bailey championed a grassroots program at Consol to greatly improve the health and safety of both underground and surface miners. The dramatic results achieved stimulated industry efforts to do the same. Lost-time accidents, serious injuries and fatalities were all reduced, and fires, floods and explosions were virtually eliminated in most mines. Consol’s “Ralph E. Bailey Safety Trophy” — awarded to operations that worked a million man-hours without a lost time accident — is a reminder of Bailey’s commitment to the safety of his miners.

Consol was acquired by Continental Oil (Conoco) in 1966. Bailey was named vice-chairman and a director of the parent company, and became Conoco’s chairman and CEO in 1979. He led Conoco in 1981 when it was acquired by E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co. for US$7 billion, the largest corporate acquisition of its time.

Bailey retired from his executive positions at DuPont and Conoco in 1987. During his career, he was the president of the American Mining Congress (AMC) and received AMC’s Distinguished Service Award for his industry contributions. He also served as chairman of the National Petroleum Council, chairman of the Environmental Task Force of the Business Roundtable and director of the American Petroleum Institute. Purdue University awarded him an honorary Doctorate in Engineering in 1979.

 

John Campbell Greenway

(1872–1926)

John Campbell Greenway was a man of unique engineering ability, managerial talent, perseverance and a reputation for completing tough jobs. A mining, steel and railroad executive, Greenway also had a distinguished career as a soldier.

Born in Huntsville, Ala., in 1872, Greenway graduated from Yale University with a PhD in engineering and was a celebrated athlete. His early mining employment was cut short when he joined Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War and earned a Silver Star for courageous service at the Battle of San Juan Hill. After the war, Greenway resumed his mining career with US Steel, where he led the development of the Western Masabe Iron Ore Range in Minnesota. Asked to move to Bisbee, Ariz., in 1910, he became General Manager of Calumet & Arizona Copper. He was later named General Manager of New Cornelia Copper (NCC) and the Cornelia & Gila Bend Railway.

It was at NCC where Greenway reached the pinnacle of his career. Copper mineralization at Ajo was remote, had no water, and the low-grade copper deposit resisted conventional processing methods. Greenway led NCC in taking on the Ajo challenge. He led the development of the Ajo townsite. For water he found an ancient lava flow, which he tapped into using a large oil rig. Man-made caverns housed the pumps and a pipeline brought the water across miles of desert into town.

Ore processing was the next challenge. Greenway and L. D. Ricketts developed, demonstrated and patented a new process. Leaching ores with dilute sulphuric acid in lead-lined vats — followed by electrowinning copper directly from solution — yielded cathode-grade copper which converted the recalcitrant Ajo mineralization into a lucrative mining venture. The railroad company began operation that same year, efficiently connecting mine to market. Between 1918 and 1957, NCC and its successor Phelps Dodge shipped over 3 billion lb. copper from the facility.

After opening copper mining in Arizona, Greenway once again joined the military in World War I, and for bravery was awarded the Croixs de Guerre and l’Etoile, the Legion of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross. In 1930, General Greenway’s statue was placed in the U.S. Capitol National Statuary Hall Collection.

Theodore Roosevelt described Greenway as one of two or three men he turned to when there was a need to find a man for a duty of particular hazard or peculiar responsibility. A eulogy in the New York Herald Tribune said that “when Greenway came upon the field of athletics or war, confidence ran through team or regiment. To know why, to analyze the reasons, would be to analyze life itself, but some of the component elements all men know — courage, leadership, common sense, unselfishness, loyalty, mercy. All these Greenway had.” In his will, Greenway left US$100,000 to the miners of NCC

 

Edward Steidle

(1887–1977)

Edward Steidle was one of the most influential early leaders of U.S. mineral education. A man of vision, Steidle was blessed with a keen appreciation of a need to bring science and technology under one roof to discover, extract, process, use and conserve mineral wealth for the benefit of mankind. In addition to being an imaginative and inspirational college administrator, Steidle was an excellent engineering teacher and an enthusiastic and great public servant.

Born in Williamsport, Pa., in 1887, Steidle received his BS and EM degrees in Mining Engineering from Pen State University. From 1912 to 1916, he rose from foreman miner in the new U.S. Bureau of Mines to assistant to the Bureau’s chief mining engineer, and gained a reputation for his ability to establish agreeable relations with miners and operators, and for authoring incisive publications on coal mine safety.

During World War I, Steidle served in the U.S. Army in France and was wounded three times, earning the Victory Medal, the Pershing Citation and the Purple Heart.

Steidle subsequently joined the Carnegie Institute of Technology as an associate professor of mining engineering, collaborating and organizing research with the U.S. Bureau of Mines and mining and metallurgical companies in the Pittsburgh area.

In 1928, Steidle was appointed dean of the School of Mining and Metallurgy at Penn State. From that time to his retirement in 1953 as the dean of the College of Mineral Industries, his planning, actions and decisions were responsible for creating the modern College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. He brought together earth-related disciplines formerly dispersed among other colleges into the School of Mineral Industries. He added petroleum and natural gas engineering, fuel technology, mineral economics, geography and meteorology. Unifying these earth-related educational program brought a greater understanding of the resource extraction, use and conservation cycle.

Steidle expressed many of his ideas and philosophy on mineral education and conservation in numerous articles and books, including: A Philosophy of Conservation, Mineral Industries Education, and Mineral Forecast 2000 A.D.

He collected original prints and paintings depicting all facets of mineral industry operations from the 1930s to illustrate the intersection of art, industry and education and the vital role these industries played in the nation’s growth. The Steidle Collection remains one of the world’s finest industrial arts collections.

In 1953, President Eisenhower appointed Steidle Chairman of the Federal Coal Mine Safety Board of Review and he served until 1967. His expertise in mineral education was in constant demand by U.S. and foreign governments, and by the United Nations.

In 1978, the Mineral Industries Building in Penn State’s University Park Campus was renamed the Steidle Building.