Henry Krumb

(1875-1958)

1983 Charter Member, Mining's Past

Henry Krumb was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Columbia School of Mines in 1898. He started his mining career in British Columbia, where he worked for several companies.

His reputation was established when he supervised a detailed examination of the Bingham Canyon deposit with underground development and diamond drilling for the Guggenheim Exploration Company in 1905. Based on this examination, the Guggenheim’s made the necessary investment in Utah Copper to launch the porphyry copper industry. Krumb started his own consulting firm in Salt Lake City in 1907 and retained his good relations with his old associates.

Krumb also examined the Nevada Consolidated Copper Co. property, where he used churn drills to sample and estimate tonnages. Krumb had perfected this method at two other properties where he directed the examination - Ray and Inspiration. Krumb’s report in 1910 on the Silver King mine near Superior, Arizona, led to the successful development of the Magma mine, which was the cornerstone of the Magma Copper Co. Here, he recognized that the chalcocite was primary in origin and likely to extend to great depth and increase in size.

Henry Krumb had many other successes in his career, in the USA, Africa, and South America, where he evaluated the giant Southern Peru Copper Company’s deposits for Newmont. When he died in 1958, Krumb left several million dollars to Columbia University, establishing the Henry Krumb School of Mines.

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