Joe Estes House played an indispensable role in the development and commercialization of revolutionary solvent extraction/electrowinning (SX/EW) minerals processing technology. As a result of Joe House’s innovative work, mineralization previously classified as waste is now mined and economically processed. In the 1980s, recently developed SX/EW technology allowed the U.S. copper industry to survive a severe industry downturn, and by the end of the 20th century, SX/EW accounted for 40% of U.S. copper production and more than 20% of copper production worldwide.
SX/EW processing is best known for its use by the copper industry, but the technology is also successfully applied to a wide range of other metals. Soon after Joe House began his industrial career with the Chemical Division of General Mills in 1956, he and his team of research chemists developed the world’s first amine-based solvent extraction reagent for commercial recovery of uranium. Such reagents are still the best available technology for primary uranium recovery. Similar reagents were successfully developed to extract vanadium, molybdenum, nickel, germanium, palladium, and a host of other metals.
After his success with uranium, Joe House was named head of General Mills Chemicals’ Minerals Industry Division and began research and development of an extractant for copper, trademarked LIX®. Joe House built and used two LIX pilot plants to obtain scale-up data, and Ranchers’ Exploration used the data to design the first commercial SX/EW plant at its Bluebird Mine near Miami, Arizona in 1968. In 1970, Bagdad Copper built a second plant in Arizona. Applications soon multiplied until LIX reagents and SX/EW processing were successfully applied at a wide variety of copper operations throughout the world.
Joe House was named Vice President of General Mills Chemicals in 1977, and when Henkel Corporation acquired General Mills Chemicals in 1978, he became a Vice President of Henkel. He remained with Henkel until his retirement in 1986.
Joe House received many honors for his pioneering development of SX/EW technology. In 1981, Joe received the Antoine M. Gaudin Award from the Society of Mining Engineers, “For his vision, ingenuity, and perseverance in the development and commercial application of solvent extractants for the uranium and copper industry.” In 1989, AIME awarded Joe its James Douglas Gold Medal. In 1995, Joe was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering. In 1997, he was awarded the Milton E. Wadsworth Extractive Metallurgy Award by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration.
Joe House is remembered in the minerals processing industry as an innovator, a trusted advisor, and a generous mentor. Under Joe House’s inspired guidance, SX/EW technology sparked a fundamental change in the way the worldwide copper industry operates.
