Philip Wiseman, an astute and industrious mining engineer, took an active part in the search for low-grade copper deposits, and was instrumental in the successful development of Ray Consolidated Copper Company’s Arizona copper property and the Cyprus Minerals Company.
Wiseman spent much of his career in the early copper mines of Butte, Montana and Arizona and, in 1901, was hired by William Boyce Thompson, the founder of Newmont Mining Corporation, as Manager of the Shannon Mine near Clifton, Arizona. This venture gave Thompson his first in a series of successful mining ventures, and Wiseman the reputation of being an exceptional mine manger.
While working as one of Henry Krumb’s assistants at the enormous Bingham Canyon project in Utah, Wiseman participated in the inspection of the property for the Guggenheims. There, he learned the economics of opening a porphyry mine from Daniel Jackling. Following the completion of the Bingham Report, Wiseman joined forces with Seeley Mudd and began the search for new porphyry deposits to develop.
It was Wiseman who first voiced interest to Mudd in the Ray property. He contended that the copper minerals were disseminated through huge masses, much as they were at Bingham Canyon and, if Bingham was good, the chances for Ray were excellent. One year later, in 1906, his argument won out, and the Mudd-Wiseman Syndicate took an option on Ray. They secured the financial backing of Jackling and Ray became the second in the so-called “Jackling Group of Porphyries.” In 1907, The Ray Consolidated Copper Company was incorporated with Wiseman as General Manager. Production at the mine began in 1911.
The Mudd-Wiseman Syndicate later financed a venture for Mediterranean exploration of copper on the island of Cyprus. Wiseman enthusiastically approved the development of the Cyprian project and, in 1913, work began on the Skouriotissa Orebody. It became one of the great copper mines of the world and was the beginning of the Cyprus Minerals Company.
