H. Myles Jacob

(1913–1997)

1998 Inductee from Mining's Past

H. Myles Jacob was born March 19, 1913 in Bloomfield, New Jersey. He received a B.C.S. degree in Business Administration from New York University in 1935 and became a Certified Public Accountant.

Six years later he joined Inspiration Consolidated Copper Company (at the time a part of Anaconda Copper Company) and served successively as Assistant Secretary and Treasurer (1944), Secretary and Treasurer (1947) and Vice President and Secretary (1955). He joined the Board of Directors of Inspiration in 1953, was named as Executive Vice President in 1957 and President in 1959, and was elected as Chairman and CEO in 1973. Jacob retired in 1978 as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Inspiration Consolidated Copper Company (now Cyprus Miami Mining Corporation). He also served on the Board of Directors of Sperry (now UNISYS) until 1983 and Callahan Mining until 1990.

Under Jacob's leadership, Inspiration became the first mining company to have a fully integrated operation and the first to electrolytically refine copper in Arizona. A smelter was acquired in 1960 and, in 1969, when its continuous copper-rod plant began operation, was the first smelter in the state to produce a semi-finished product.

In 1974, the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) presented him with the “William Lawrence Saunders Gold Medal”.  Jacob assisted in founding the Copper Development Association, the International Copper Research Association and the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville, Colorado.

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