Albert J. (Al) Perry (1930 - 2013)

Exploration Geologist

2020 Inductee from Mining's Past

Albert J. (Al) Perry was born in 1930 in White SuIphur Springs, West Virginia. He served in the United States Marine Corps and attended Washington and Lee University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology. 

With his wife Mary, he went to the University of Colorado, where he earned a Master of Science in Geology. The 1950’s uranium boom led him to become an exploration geologist with Union Carbide, where he branched out to explore for other metals, including silver and gold.

From this experience he formed Perry, Knox and Kaufman (PKK), a consulting and contract exploration company, that determined that lower grade silver mineralization present in the Silver City district in Idaho and at Candelaria, Nevada, could be successfully mined using conventional open pit methods.

After the dissolution of PKK in 1979, the developing world-wide exploration boom for gold started him on a path that focused on grass-roots exploration extending from the western U.S. to Australia, Fiji, and Africa.

In Ghana and Eritrea he achieved his greatest exploration success, single handedly discovering the Nkron Hill deposit in Ghana, and the Emba Derho, Adi Nefas, Gupo, and Debarwa deposits in Eritrea.  Together, these deposits have been developed into mines containing more than 2 million ounces of gold.

While working in Africa, Al developed a passion for supporting the less privileged people he encountered by funding university degrees for two Ghanaian students, and helping to support a church-run boarding school in Ghana. He considered these to be among his greatest accomplishments.

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