Awards & Scholarships

Fred D. DeVaney was born in 1901 at Waubay, South Dakota. He received an E.M. from the University of Minnesota in 1923 and an M.S. from the University of Alabama in 1924.

He was employed as a Metallurgist for the U. S. Bureau of Mines in various capacities from 1924 to 1942, at Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Rolla, Mo. Those years were spent on research projects concerning the roasting and magnetic concentration processes on iron ores, grinding studies of rod and ball mill performance, and flotation of non-sulphide minerals such as iron, manganese and potash.

In 1942, Mr. DeVaney joined Pickands Mather & Co. to institute a research program on the treatment of Minnesota taconite. This resulted in the Erie Mining Company's $300,000,000 Taconite Plant at Aurora, Minn. Development work on other iron ores has led to the construction of seven other concentration plants in Minnesota and Canada.

Formerly Chief Metallurgist, Mr. DeVaney is now Director of Metallurgy and Research with Pickands Mather & Co. He has been a Member of AIME since 1923. He was the first chairman of the Minnesota Milling Subsection, AIME, and served as Chairman of the Minnesota Section in 1956.

Mr. DeVaney has invented more than seventeen concentration processes covered by U. S. Patents and having to do with flotation, iron ore concentration and pelletizing.