J. David Lowell papers

J. David Lowell was born February 28, 1928 and grew up on a ranch near Nogales, Arizona. His father, Arthur Lowell, worked on mining jobs and it was in 1935, at the age of 7 years old, Lowell found his calling while camping out at his father’s mines in the hills of southern Arizona.

J. David Lowell obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in mining engineering from the University of Arizona in 1949, a Master’s of Science in geology from Stanford University in 1957 and an Engineer of Geology degree from the University of Arizona in 1959.

Lowell began his career as a mining engineer and shift boss with Asarco in Mexico, followed by a job as an exploration geologist with the US Atomic Energy Commission on the Colorado Plateau (1951 – 1954). After he finished his MS at Stanford, he returned to uranium exploration in Utah for a subsidiary of Ventures Limited of Canada whose CEO was Thayer Lindsley, a legendary explorationist. Later on, his work with the company evolved into porphyry copper searching in Arizona, where his career-long interest in porphyry copper exploration was born. In 1959, he became district geologist specializing in porphyry copper exploration for Utah Construction in San Francisco. It was in 1961 that Lowell became an independent consultant and between 1961 to 1990, he worked for 110 companies in 26 countries, though primarily in North America, South America, and Southeast Asia, mainly in porphyry copper exploration. He is credited as discovered more copper ore than anyone else in history.

He has received many awards from professional organizations, such as National Academy of Engineering, Society of Mining Engineers Jackling-Dreyer Award, American Institute of Mining Engineering McConnell Award, SEG Silver Medal MMSA Gold Medal, a 2002 inductee of the American Mining Hall of Fame, as well as received Honorary Doctorate degrees from the Universidad Nacional de San Marcos in Peru in 1998 and the University of Arizona in 2000. Lowell has also published more than 50 articles. The most notable, co-authored with John Guilbert, is on the Lowell and Guilbert Model, a guide to large, low-grade porphyry copper deposits which has become the standard reference for exploration geologists worldwide. In addition, Lowell’s autobiography, Intrepid Explorer, was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2014.