Oral Histories

Frank G. Joklik was an exploration geologist, developer of Mt. Newman Mine, president and CEO of Kennecott from 1949 to 1996, and chairman of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games Committee. He was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1928 but moved to Australia, where he attended Cranbrook School and the University of Sydney from 1945 to 1953. While there, he worked as an exploration geologist for the Bureau of Mineral Resources and began working on his Ph.D. thesis on the pegmatites of Harts Range. Joklik then became a Fulbright scholar at Columbia University in 1953 before obtaining a job as an exploration geologist for Kennecott Copper Co. where he remained until 1963. In 1964 he began working for AMAX and became project manager for Mt. Newman iron ore mine and then the vice president for the Australia office. In 1974, Joklik moved in to work for Kennecott, where he was senior vice president and then later president from 1980 to 1993. In 2002, he was appointed chairman of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games Committee. In this interview, Joklik discusses his family background in Vienna, move to Australia, education at Cranbrook School, University of Sydney, Harvard Commerce, Industry, and Labor School Program of Management Development, 1960, kimberley bauxite-alumina, technology, North Carolina phosphate,questa molybdenum, labor negotiations, modernization at Chino, NM, modernization of Utah Copper mine, EPA compliance, mergers with Sohio, BP, and RTZ, exploration activities, including discovery and development of Lihir Island gold mine, acquisition of Powder River Basin coal mines and the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games Committee.