David F. Briggs

Consulting Geologist

Born in Richmond, Virginia in May 1950, I attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where I successfully completed a Bachelor of Science degree in General Science (Major - Geology and Minor - Math) in 1972 and a Master of Science degree in Geological Sciences in 1975. My master’s thesis was entitled: "Petrology of the Roxboro Metagranite, North Carolina."

My career as a geologist began in late 1974 with the Federal Power Commission, where I participated as a member of a team, which assisted the legal staff in analyzing testimony submitted by natural gas pipeline and oil companies. I resigned this position in July 1977, in order to resume my education at the University of Arizona. After an additional year of graduate study, I joined the exploration staff of Quintana Minerals Corporation in June 1978, where I performed a variety of tasks, including the evaluation of porphyry, base and precious metals, barite, oil shale, phosphate and uranium occurrences throughout the western United States. The collapse of the copper market during the fall 1981 combined with budgetary overruns incurred during the development of the Copper Flat copper mine in New Mexico resulted in staff reductions at Quintana, which included the elimination of my position in February 1982. Over the next six years, I held a number of positions with the following mining companies: the Shell Oil Company, Kennecott Exploration Company, Battle Mountain Gold Company and Echo Bay Mines Ltd. Although this work primarily consisted of various gold reconnaissance programs in the Great Basin and southeastern Arizona, I also had the opportunity to participate in an ore delineation drilling program at Echo Bay’s newly discovered Cove gold-silver deposit.

After beginning my consulting business during the fall of 1988, I continued to work as a field exploration geologist. Over the next fifteen months my primary client was the Reese River Resource Corporation, who held a large property position south of Battle Mountain, Nevada. During my tenure with this organization, I had the opportunity to work closely with Ralph J. Roberts, a pioneer, whose work in the Great Basin over several decades lead to the development of geological concepts that have played an important role in many of the major gold discoveries of this region.

In January 1990, I changed the focus of my business from field exploration to mining operations research.  This lead to the formation of Geomineinfo and the development of the Mining Operations Report. This compilation of data has been completed in several stages. The original study, consisting of seventy-nine Nevada mining operations, was first published during the fall of 1990. It was subsequently expanded to include all United States mining operations in November 1991. International mining operations were initially introduced in August 1994. Since that date, work on this on-going project has included the addition of many new mining operations to the study as well as the expansion of the types of data reported on the individual mining operations. Over the years, I have published seven editions of this study, which presently contains data on more than six hundred domestic and international mining metals operations.

In March 2006, I returned to the field, working as a consultant on the Rosemont copper project in Pima county, Arizona for Augusta Resource Corporation and Tetra Tech MM, Inc.    Upon the completion my tenure at Rosemont in early July 2007, I have continued to offer a variety consulting services to my clients.

Qualifications                          List of Clients