James Boyd (engineer)

James Boyd (December 20, 1904 – November 24, 1987) was an American mining engineer and educator.

He led the Metals and Minerals Branch of the Commodities Division of the Army–Navy Munitions Board during World War II and served as the 8th director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines.

James Boyd was born on December 20, 1904, in Kanowna, Western Australia to Mary (née Cane) and Julian Boyd, a mining engineer and an Australian World War I veteran.

Julian Boyd was the son of a Sydney stockbroker who assisted Herbert Hoover with financing his mining ventures.

Boyd went to Canon McClement's School in Perth.

His family moved to Surrey, England in 1917.

He attended a prep school in Kenley for a year and a half and then Oundle School in Northamptonshire for three years, but did not graduate.

In December 1921, the family moved to Hollywood, California and Boyd graduated from Hollywood High School in 1923.

He became a citizen of the United States in 1925 or 1927.

Boyd received a Bachelor of Science in engineering and economics from the California Institute of Technology in 1927.

In 1927, Boyd started his career with the Radiore Company, a subsidiary of Southwest Engineering Company.

He worked in Quebec performing electromagnetic prospecting.

He left the company in September 1929.

From 1929 to 1941, Boyd taught at the Colorado School of Mines.

He also performed consulting work, did summer work with the United States Geological Survey, and formed the B. E. Moritz Instruments Company with Bert Moritz.

He then received a Master of Science in geophysics in 1932 and Doctor of Science in geology in 1934 at the Colorado School of Mines.

He was a member of Reserve Officers' Training Corps while at Cal Tech.

He was admitted to Tau Beta Pi while at the Colorado School of Mines.

He started as an instructor of geology and in 1938, he became an associate professor of economic geology.

Boyd was inducted into the U.S. Army as a captain in the summer of 1941.

Boyd served under the Undersecretary of War Robert Patterson by leading the Metals and Minerals Branch of the Commodities Division of the Army–Navy Munitions Board.

He also joined the staff of the Metals Reserve Company, a division of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation tasked with procuring metals and minerals for U.S. defense forces.

He later served on the War Production Board and as an executive officer to General Lucius D. Clay.

He attained the rank of colonel under General Clay.

After the war, he continued serving under General Clay as the executive director of the Industry Division of the Office of Military Government, United States in Germany.

From 1946 to 1947, Boyd served as the Dean of Faculty of the Colorado School of Mines.

He later served as the chairman of the Colorado School of Mines Advisory Board.

In 1947, Boyd was serving as special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Julius Krug and then as the Defense Minerals Administrator.

Starting in August 1947, Boyd served as the interim director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines.

Boyd's nomination was disputed by John L. Lewis, head of the United Mine Workers union.

He would not be confirmed by congress as the director until March 22, 1949.

He served in the role until 1951.

At the onset of the Korean War and later the Vietnam War, Boyd pushed for more domestic mineral production for war production.

In 1951, Boyd joined the Kennecott Copper Corporation as exploration manager.

In 1955, he became the Vice President of Exploration at Kennett Copper.

In 1960, he became the president of Copper Range Company and then became the chairman of the board of directors in 1970.

While at Copper Range, he presided over the expansion of the White Pine Copper Mine in Michigan and getting a major interest in the Round Mountain Gold Mine in Nevada.

In 1971, he was appointed executive director of the National Commission on Materials Policy, known as the "Boyd Commission", and chairman of the Materials Advisory Panel of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment.

He helped develop the National Materials and Minerals Policy Research and Development Act of 1980.

Boyd was a founder of the National Mining Hall of Fame.