Arthur Barrette Parsons

(1887-1966)

2014 Inductee from Mining's Past

Mining Editor and Author

Arthur Barrette Parsons was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on November 22, 1887.  At age 17 he was working as a farmer near Ely, Nevada when he noted while everyone else traveled by stage or on horseback, the mining engineers all traveled by automobile.  How much influence this may have had is uncertain, but he entered the Utah School of Mines and graduated with a B.S. degree in 1909.  In 1910 and 1911, he worked as an assayer, mill man, and surveyor in NV and UT.  From 1911-1915, he was mill superintendent for Candor Mines Co., North Carolina.  In 1917, he went to India for Burma Mines, Ltd. and in 1918 he joined the Butte and Superior Mining Co. in Butte, MT.

A.B. became Associate Editor for the Mining and Scientific Press, then Associate Editor Engineering and Mining Journal and was President, Mineral Research Corporation.  Parsons joined AIME in 1914 and served as its Secretary (modern equivalent of Executive Director) from 1931-1948.  He wrote the History of the Institute 1871-1947.  Parsons is perhaps best known as the author of the book published by AIME titled The Porphyry Coppers in 1933, revised in 1956.  This was a seminal work detailing the history and technical information available on the major porphyry copper deposits worldwide.  He was the author of more than 200 articles on the technical and political phases of the mineral industries.  Parsons died in 1966.

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