Harvey Seeley Mudd - Mining Career

Mining Career

Mudd and his father founded the Cyprus Mines Corporation in 1916. The Los Angeles–based enterprise started with development of the copper mines on the island of Cyprus.

In ancient times, Cyprus was famous for its copper (the Greek word for Cyprus is Kupros, which means copper). However, at the time the Mudds began the Cyprus Mines Corp., copper had not been mined on Cyprus for almost 1500 years. With the backing of Colonel Seeley Mudd, geologist Charles Godfrey Gunther began a long and finally successful search for new copper on Cyprus. However, twenty years passed before the Cyprus Mines Corp. paid its first dividends in 1936.

In 1918, Mudd became president of Cyprus Mines Corporation. Mudd became chairman of Cyprus Mines in 1926 when his father died. As head of Cyprus Mines, Harvey Mudd developed and managed copper mines in the Mediterranean, as well as an iron mine in Peru and oil properties in the United States.

At the time of Harvey Mudd's death in 1955, the company's copper mines on Cyprus had become the island's largest industry, exporting nearly a million tons of copper a year. Mudd's copper mines on Cyprus supported 2,000 of the island's inhabitants and provided more than 25 percent of the island's entire annual revenue. Cyprus Mines paid its employees 15–20 percent above the island average. The company ran an up-to-date, 65-bed hospital for its employees, built scores of low-cost houses for them to live in, and helped to run schools, sports clubs, welfare centers, and summer camps for their families.

Mudd served as president of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers in 1945. In 1949, the Columbia University Engineering School Alumni Association awarded him its Egleston Medal for distinguished engineering achievement.