Miners

Throughout his 48-year career, Ross Beaty has been a leader in the international mining and renewable energy industries, making a significant and lasting impact in BC and around the world. After graduating from the University of British Columbia in 1979 in geology and law, Ross began a geological contracting company, Beaty Geological, which he operated from 1980 through 1987. In 1985, Ross established…

John Mackay, James Fair, James Flood, William O'Brien In 1871, Irish-Americans John William Mackay, James Graham Fair, James Clair Flood and William S. O'Brien, organized the Consolidated Virginia Silver Mine near Virginia City, Nevada, from a number of smaller claims on the Comstock Lode and later added the nearby California mine. Mackay and Fair had the mining knowledge and Flood and O'Brien raised…

Marcus Daly (December 5, 1841 – November 12, 1900) was an Irish-born American businessman known as one of the three "Copper Kings" of Butte, Montana, United States. Prior to his copper career, Daly gained experience in the silver mines of the Comstock mines under the direction of John William Mackay and James G. Fair. While working there he met and befriended George Hearst and Lloyd Tevis, co-owners…

Hank Day (1902-1985) was born in in Spokane, Washington, to Helen Dwyer and Harry Lawrence Day, and grew up in Burke, Idaho, site of the great Hercules mine. In 1905, the family moved to Wallace, Idaho where he remained with the exceptions of when he attended the University of California where, in 1923, he graduated in Mining Engineering. The following year he did post graduate studies in economic…

Bartolomé de Medina was a successful Spanish merchant who became fascinated with the problem of decreasing silver yields from ores mined in Spanish America. By the mid-sixteenth century, it was well known in Spain that American silver production was in decline due to the depletion of high-grade ores and increasing production costs. The New Laws, prohibiting the enslavement of Indians, had resulted…

The Dow of Dow-Jones is Charles Henry Dow, born Nov. 5, 1851, in Connecticut. He went into journalism, working for New England newspapers. His work impressed Charles Danielson, editor of the Providence (R.I.) Journal, and so in 1879 he assigned Dow to join a group of bankers and reporters who were going west to examine the silver mines of Leadville. After a four-day train trip, Dow wrote nine “Leadville…

Charles W. Engelhard Jr. (February 15, 1917 – March 2, 1971 was an American businessman who controlled an international mining and metals conglomerate, as well as a major owner in Thoroughbred horse racing. Engelhard made his fortune in the precious metals industry, where he operated a company dealing in platinum, gold, and silver founded by his German American father, Charles W Engelhard Sr.…

William Bell Frue, emigrated, at a young age, from Ireland to the United States. His mining career began in 1853 when he worked for the Pewabic copper mine in Michigan. With the discovery of the rich silver deposit on Silver Islet in the Canadian waters of Lake Superior, he was hired by the American, Alexander Sibley, who purchased the mine site from the Montreal Mining Company and formed the Silver…

Juan Godoy (1801-1842) was a Chilean prospector and woodcutter who in 1832 discovered an outcrop (reventón) of silver 50 km south of Copiapó in Chañarcillo. This event sparkled the Chilean silver rush. He successfully claimed the discovered outcrop in his name and the name of José Godoy and Manuel Gallo. The finding attracted thousands of people to the place and generated significant wealth. The…

The Spanish conquest of South America led to the discovery of Peruvian mountains rich in gold and silver. In April, 1545, high up in the Andes, an Indian named Diego Gualapa climbed a distinctively shaped conical peak in search of a rumoured Indian shrine. Such shrines frequently contained some gold or silver relics suitable for plunder. The peak was located at an altitude of 4,824 metres (15,287 ft.)…

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Daniel Guggenheim was sent to Switzerland as a young man to study the Swiss lace and embroidery business, and to serve as a buyer for his father's import firm. The discovery of high-grade silver-lead ore in the Guggenheim mines in Leadville, Colorado in 1881 became the foundation for the Guggenheim fortune in mining. In 1884, Daniel returned to the US to help manage…

Meyer Guggenheim was born in Lengnau, Aargau, Switzerland on February 1, 1828. He was of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry and emigrated to the United States in 1847. He started out in the importing business, but made his and his family's fortune (which was one of the largest fortunes of the 19th century) in mining and smelting. Guggenheim invested in silver mines of the Leadville mining district of Colorado.…

Born in Vermont, Hayward moved to Canton, New York early in his life. He studied law in New York, but also pursued lumber and lead mining interests. His experience in Michigan vein mining proved invaluable after his move to California in the Gold Rush of 1850. After buying an interest in the Eureka Mine in Amador County, Hayward made new investments and successfully extracted gold where others had…

George Hearst, of Scots-Irish origin, was born near present-day Sullivan, Missouri, to William G. Hearst and Elizabeth Collins. Hearst was raised in a log cabin on his family's farm in rural Franklin County. His father operated three small farms, all of which were mortgaged, with slave labor. William Hearst sold his products in his own local general store. George Hearst grew up before public education…

Tom Herbert was a French-Canadian working on the railroad being pushed through northern Ontario in the early 1900s. He discovered a vein in the face of a cliff and prevailed on the geologist William Miller to examine it. Miller, Ontario's first government geologist, was in the area looking into the discoveries of James McKinley and Alfred Larose. Miller reported:...“silver was lying in profusion…

In 1526 Tarnowskie Góry in Silesia (southern Poland) was awarded the status of a free mining town, and in 1528, John II the Good, Duke of Opole, issued an ordinance known as the Ordunek Górny, granting the town a series of mining privileges. At the same time a mining authority was also established, its seal and coat-of-arms eventually becoming the town’s coat-of-arms. The Reformation found many…

In 1526 Kamiya Jutei, a wealthy merchant from Hakata, founded the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine in Ōda. In 1533 he introduced a Korean method of silver refining to the mine, which became the Hai-Fuki-Ho method. Historians compared the Hai-Fuki-Ho method to the Medieval European seigerprozess [de] of silver smelting. Under the Hai-Fuki-Ho method, silver-containing copper ore would be cast-smelted with lead,…

Credited with the discovery of several sizeable lead-zinc-silver deposits in Yukon, most notably the renowned Faro deposit, Alan Kulan was a compassionate and pioneering prospector with an independent, entrepreneurial spirit. His successes spawned other ventures such as prospecting syndicates and exploration companies that discovered other notable deposits and significant mineral occurrences and in…

Alfred LaRose, was a blacksmith working as a contractor on the railway being pushed through northern Ontario near Mile 103. About two weeks after Alfred McKinley and Ernest Darragh had made their discovery, LaRose noticed erythrite (red cobalt/cobalt bloom) along the tracks. LaRose noted "One evening I found a float, a piece as big as my hand, with little sharp points all over it. I say nothing but…

Inducted into the Silver Hall of Fame in 2017 Mr Lomelín spent 36 years at Peñoles where he served as Group Vice President of the metals and chemicals division for four years and subsequently held the position as CEO for 21 years. He brings to the board an invaluable wealth of senior operational experience in the fields of mining and engineering. Following a career in metals and mining, Mr Lomelín…

Inducted into the Silver Hall of Fame in 2017 Mr. Luna is currently (2017) Director, President and CEO of Rochester Resources Ltd., a junior natural resources company. Mr. Luna recently joined the board of DynaResource, Inc. which has appointed him as special advisor to the president of its wholly owned Mexican subsidiary. Mr. Luna was Chairman of the Company from October 2004 to May 2009 (and was…

Elizabeth “Baby Doe” McCourt Tabor: Colorado’s Silver Queen Elizabeth McCourt Tabor (1854 – March 7, 1935), better known as Baby Doe, was the second wife of pioneer Colorado businessman Horace Tabor. Her rags-to-riches and back to rags again story made her a well-known figure in her own day, and inspired an opera and a Hollywood movie based on her life. Born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, she moved…

James H. McKinley and Ernest J. Darragh were contractors providing lumber for a railway being pushed north through the thick Ontario bush. On August 7, 1903 the two partners were walking the right of way scouting for trees suitable for railway ties. As they passed through a rock cut on the banks of Long Lake (now called Cobalt Lake), south of Haileybury, their curiosity was aroused by a pink stain.…

Dr. Willet G. Miller, a world-renowned geologist, had an enormous influence on the scientific advancement and mineral development of Canada, and particularly Ontario, in the early decades of the 20th century. His memory has been perpetuated by such practical tokens as a bronze plaque on a cairn at Cobalt, Miller Hall at Queen's University, and the Willet G. Miller Medal of the Royal Society of Canada.…

Daniel O'Connor (31 January 1864 – 30 March 1933) was a Canadian politician, businessman and prospector from Pembroke, Ontario. In the late 1880s, O'Connor moved to Sudbury where he became associated with economy, life and industry, becoming the town's second mayor in 1894.  Inn and Ronnoco Hotel. When O'Connor moved to Temagami, he was hoping to find some mineral prospects.  In 1899, O'Connor…

Inducted into the Silver Hall of Fame in 2017 Robert A. Quartermain has extensive global experience in geology, exploration and development. Over his 40-year career in the resource industry, he has established a solid track record in building shareholder value in the field of precious metals exploration and development. Dr. Quartermain was the president of Silver Standard Resource Inc. from 1985 to…

Paul Sarnoff was, in addition to being a career commodities trader, a prolific writer. His 30-some titles include “Silver Bulls: The Great Silver Boom and Bust,” covering the seven months leading up to the rise and fall of silver during 1979 and 1980. It is a constructive and contrarian narrative, placing blame not on the infamous Hunt brothers but instead on the claque of short-traders who, with…

Edward Lawrence Schieffelin (1847–1897) was an Indian scout and prospector who discovered silver in the Arizona Territory, which led to the founding of Tombstone, Arizona. He partnered with his brother Al and mining engineer Richard Gird in a handshake deal that produced millions of dollars in wealth for all three men. During the course of Tombstone's mining history, about US $85,000,000 in silver…

Giovanni Battista Serpieri was the first foreign ‘mega-entrepreneur’ to invest in Greece. He was demonized almost immediately after he had invested fifteen million drachmas to gain the concession to re-open the Lavrion Mines, the same mines that had made ancient Athens an economic powerhouse. Led by Epaminondas Deligiorgis the opposition in the Greek parliament raised questions about the legality…

Antonio Siraumea, a Yaqui, was likely a resident of the rancheria Arizonac, a real, or small mining camp at the edge of the northern frontier of the Spanish colonies of New Spain. In October 1736, Siraumea found what appeared to be a number of massive pieces of native silver that were eventually determined to weigh in excess of two tons. This discovery, known as the planchas or bolas de plata brought…

As the first woman in the California Gulch district, Augusta Louise Tabor, fondly remembered as “The First Lady of Leadville,” spent much of her life in helping make Leadville a great mining camp. She was born in Maine and, in 1857, married the now famous mining magnate, Horace Tabor, who was then a stone mason.  The Tabors heard rumors of gold strikes near Pike’s Peak and in 1859 headed for…

Horace Tabor’s life story is a testament to hard work but also a great anecdote about short-sightedness. From a simple stone-cutter, he would grow to become one of the country’s wealthiest men, only to lose his riches after spending lavishly and investing poorly. Born in Vermont in 1830, Horace Tabor and his wife, Augusta, moved to Leadville in 1850, where he mined California Gulch and she ran…

Noah Anthony Timmins (March 31, 1867 – January 22, 1936) was a Canadian mining financier and developer who is now counted among the founding fathers of Canada's mining industry. Noah Timmins partnered with his older brother Henry in 1903 to buy into the La Rose silver claim in Cobalt, Ontario at the onset of the Cobalt silver rush. Fred La Rose, a blacksmith, while working for brothers Duncan and…