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From the Other Side

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

I told you last month that I would reveal the name of the seismic contractor responsible for a major copper strike in Arizona. The company was United Geophysical Company and the find was the Pima Mine. My source is Walter E. Heinrichs. I don't know much about that mining region, but I gather Pima Mine is part of a much large mining trend in Arizona called the Mission Complex.

But first, what do you know about United Geophysical? Ah ha! Just as I thought. You know nothing. Interestingly, the main player in United was Herbert Hoover Jr., son of the U.S. president with the same name. United fielded its first seismic crew in 1936 and went on to become a reasonably successful company. In 1951, it sold out to Union of California, which seems strange—an oil company investing in a seismic contractor? Apparently, as part of the sale, Hoover was elected to the board of Union of California. The scuttlebutt I have heard was that many oil companies subsequently wouldn't hire United crews as long as it was owned by Union. I don't know whether that was really the case but I know that Union, only five years later, sold United back to a group of employees. I wonder if they made any money (Union, that is).

Back to copper. A note from Heinrichs says: "In 1948, a partner (Bob Thurmond) and I talked United Geophysical into subsidizing a successful mining venture, but when United went Union Oil, Cyprus Mining of L.A. optioned the mine and Union formed Minerals Exploration . . . [Full Text of this Article]