Bingham Copper Men
Index For This Page
This page was last updated on November 29, 2025.
Overview
(The focus of this page is brief biographical notes of the men that made the Bingham Mining District so successful. Also to establish a timeline using sources not previously readily available.)
As important as the everyday wage worker was to the history of Bingham, it was several men with vision and charisma who made the mines of the Bingham Mining District so successful. These men developed the networks of mining engineers and financiers to develop undeveloped or partially developed mining claims to become giant organizations that made money for their shreholders, and at least until 1980, kept the mines as a decent place to work.
Louis S. Cates
Louis S. Cates was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1881. He received a mining engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1902 and began his career in the mining fields of Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico. He later moved to Bingham Canyon, Utah, with the Boston Consolidated Mining Company. There, he was made manager in 1910, and played a major role in development of the huge Bingham open pit mine. When Utah Copper Company purchased Boston Consolidated, Cates was put in charge of the Ray Consolidated Copper Company at Ray, Arizona. He became General Manager at Ray in 1913, and in 1923, he went to Salt Lake City as Vice President and General Manager of Utah Copper Company.
In 1930, he resigned to become President of Phelps Dodge Corporation. He retired as President and became Chairman of the Board in 1947. Under Cates' leadership, Phelps Dodge became one of the big three copper producers in the world. It was during his tenure that Phelps Dodge acquired the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company and the United Verde Copper Company. However, his major achievement at Phelps Dodge was the development of the Morenci open pit mine.
(Read more about the Kennecott Ray Mines Division)
Thomas Weir
Thomas Weir came to Utah in the early 1890s, managing various mines in the Bingham mines. He became associated with Samuel Newshouse in about 1895 and together they developed the Highland Boy gold mine of the Utah Consolidated mining company, then the Boston Consolidated mining caompany adjacent to te Highland Boy mine. Both Weir and Newhouse cut their ties with the Boston Consolidated company in 1910 when it was bought by the Utah Copper company. After 1910, both men remained in Utah, and were active in developing other mines. Thomas Weir died in June 1932 in Salt Lake City, at age 77.
Samuel Newhouse
(Research continues...)
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