Daniel Jackling

Daniel Cowan Jackling was an American mining and metallurgical engineer who transformed the copper industry by proving that low-grade porphyry copper ores, previously considered worthless, could be mined and processed profitably at large scale. In 1903 he organized the Utah Copper Company and introduced open-pit mining using steam shovels at the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah, and by 1912 that mine and its associated smelting facilities had become the largest industrial mining complex in the world. He also developed a cyanide extraction process for gold and held senior executive positions at several other mining ventures, including the Nevada Consolidated Copper Corporation and the Alaska-Gastineau Mine. For directing United States explosives plants during the First World War he received the Distinguished Service Medal in 1919, and he later won the John Fritz Medal in 1933; a statue of him stands in the Utah State Capitol rotunda, placed there in 1954, and the Daniel C. Jackling Award, established in 1953, continues to recognize major contributions to mining and geology.