Roshan B. Bhappu

(1926-2019)

2006 Medal of Merit Recipient

Roshan Bhappu was born September 14, 1926, and received his early education at the University of Bombay in India. He received a B.S. in metallurgical engineering in 1950, an M.S. in 1951, and D.Sc. in 1953, all from the Colorado School of Mines. He started his engineering career as a resident metallurgist for Miami Copper in Globe, Arizona. He then spent 14 years as senior metallurgist at the New Mexico Bureau of Mines. He also served as research professor and vice president for research at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. In 1972, he joined Mountain States Engineers group in Tucson, Arizona, to start the Mountain States Research & Development Division. This was spun off as a separate company in 1987. Bhappu is the founder and remains as president of Mountain States R & D International, Inc.

During the last 33 years, Bhappu has worked on hundreds of mining projects concerned with the extraction of base metals, precious metals, industrial minerals, coal, and uranium. He has provided special expertise in the pre-concentration of minerals using the heavy media separation concept, heap and dump leaching, in-situ extraction of copper and uranium, and projects related to environmental considerations.

Bhappu was president of SME in 1990, president of AIME in 1992, and president of the Mining Foundation of the Southwest in 2005. He was editor-in-chief of the Minerals and Metallurgical Processing journal from 1986-97 and co-editor of the Handbook on Mineral Processing. He also has more than 100 technical articles and several patents to his credit.

Bhappu received the “Van Diest Gold Medal” from Colorado School of Mines in 1968 and the “Robert H. Richards Award” from AIME in 1983. He is a “Distinguished Member” and a “Legion of Honor” member of SME and is a registered professional engineer in the states of Arizona and New Mexico and consultant to the United Nations and the World Bank. This year the AIME Honorary Membership was presented to Bhappu “for more than 50 years of dedication and outstanding service to the international mining industry, in academia, research and operations.”

~~~~~~

Dr. Roshan Bhappu passed on December 28, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona.

Print Version     Previous     Archive     Next