Oral Histories

Bhappu received his early education at the University of Bombay in India. He obtained his bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering in 1950, an M.S. in 1951 and a D.Sc. in 1953, all from the Colorado School of Mines. Bhappu started his engineering career as the resident metallurgist for Miami Copper in Arizona. He then spent by 14 years as senior metallurgist at the New Mexico Bureau of Mines as well as research professor and vice president for research at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. In 1972, he joined the Mountain States Engineers group in Tucson, AZ to start the Mountain States R&D Division. This was spun-off as a separate company in 1987. During the last 33 years, Bhappu has worked on hundreds of mining projects concerned with the extraction of base metals, precious metals, industrial minerals, coal and uranium. Several of these projects have resulted in commercial operations. Bhappu’s special expertise is in the preconcentration of minerals using HMS concept, heap and dump leaching, in-situ extraction of copper and uranium and projects related to environmental considerations. Bhappu has written more than 100 technical papers and books. He holds several patents and is a consultant to the United Nations and World Bank. He was president of SME in 1990, president of AIME in 1992 and president of the Mining Foundation of the Southwest in 2005. He was editor-in-chief of the Minerals and Metallurgical Processing journal from 1986-97 and is currently editor-in-chief emeritus. He received the Van Diest Gold Medal from the Colorado School of Mines in 1968 and the Robert H. Richards Award from AIME in 1983. He was a Distinguished Member and a Legion of Honor member of SME. Bhappu was a registered professional engineer in the states of Arizona and New Mexico.  He passed away December 28, 2019.

In this interview, Bhappu discusses the evolution of the mining industry over the past forty years.