Exxon Minerals, My First Real Job.

1980 was a challenging year to be graduating from college for most people:

From Houston 1980

Unemployment was high, inflation was high:

From Houston 1980

and oil prices were the reason:

From Houston 1980

Oil prices and all natural resources were expensive. That made Mining Engineers one of the most highly paid BS degrees that year.

I was an odd sort of Mining Engineer, however. I loved cities, and disliked small towns. I liked the math and physics, and didn't really revel in the field work. I wanted to find a job that would let me have it all

I had four "site visits" and five job offers. Lafayette with ARCO. San Francisco with Bechtel. Houston with Shell. Gillette, WY with Exxon Coal. Last, late, and my first choice was Houston with Exxon Minerals. (Hard rock mining is the prize for most mining engineers. Most coal mines (unlike Kemmerer, below) are strip mines - little more than glorified earth moving assignments)

It was a hard decision at the time. The Minerals job was very late in coming, and I had already accepted the job in Gillette (yes, it is called "razor city"). Luckily, I could tell them with a straight face that another Exxon company wanted me. The Coal folks were not happy.

It was a great thing for me, though. When I showed up at the office, (Dresser Tower, Downtown Houston) I was in heaven:

From Houston 1980

My boss, Jim Grenias (God bless you Jim, wherever you are!) greeted me with a huge handshake and shouting "Christmas came early this year!" (I started 14 July, 1980) There are few memories I have that are better than that moment.

The reality was slightly less rosy. I was in new job in a brand new company that Exxon started to get into the mining business. Exxon had decided that they were not going to buy an existing mining company (like ARCO or Amoco did) but build a "world class"minerals mining company from scratch. That was us. (and Esso Eastern)

The mine I was assigned to was called Pinos Altos near Silver City, NM.


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It was a sweet little copper/zinc mine. How sweet? Well, the geologists did such a good job that they hit mineralization on the first diamond drill. And you could see it in the cores:

From Houston 1980

From Houston 1980

From Houston 1980

I cannot say where I got those photos, but they are photos of the core samples from Pinos Altos. Nice, eh?

I did engineering things like economic analysis of the mine, and then studies trying to figure out what kind of haul trucks to buy:



Now, is that engineering, or what? I even used calculus! When was the last time you used calculus in your job? (Note the date on that report. 5 Feb, 1981. 30 years almost to the day of this post)

The problem was that the mineralization was not nearly as extensive as we had hoped. And copper prices were dropping like a rock. ( $2,233/t in 1980 to $1,856/t in 1981.)

So shortly after I was told that I was to move to the mine and act as the Mine Engineer, the project was canceled.

Exxon was good, though. They told me that they knew what was best for me. Then, as now, those sorts of comments did not sit well with me. But in retrospect, they were probably right. They told me they wanted to get me into their computer group. In particular their data management function (A DB administrator, actually).

I told them they were crazy, that went to school to be a mining engineer, and a mining engineer is what I was going to be.

The story continues, and the irony becomes apparent in only a year or so down the road.