Ralph L. Hennebach (1920 – 2008)

Engineer and Mining Executive

2026 Inductee from Mining's Past

Ralph Hennebach graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1941 as a metallurgical engineer and received an M.S. degree in industrial management from MIT in 1953. Hennebach began his long career with ASARCO as a carpenter's assistant while he was still in High School. Following university graduation, he was hired by ASARCO in 1941 as a chemist in the company's EI Paso plant laboratory and subsequently was an assayer and plant metallurgist. After serving as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in World War II, Hennebach returned to ASARCO as Assistant Supervisor of their copper smelter in Hayden, Arizona. In 1948 he was transferred to EI Paso to start up a slag fuming plant and in 1953 was assigned as an ore buyer in the New York office. Over the next two decades, he rose to Assistant General Manager of the Western Department in Salt Lake City, Assistant to the Executive Vice President and then Vice President, Smelting and Refining, for ASARCO in New York.  ASARCO appointed Hennebach as a director in 1964, Executive Vice President in 1966, President in 1971 and Chairman of the Board in 1982. Hennebach retired in 1985.  Thereafter, he served as a director on many boards and was very active with his alma mater.

Hennebach was awarded the AIME Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold Medal in 1983. The National Mining Museum includes the Hennebach Wing, which opened in February 2005 and was named in honor of Hennebach, retired chairman of ASARCO. Formerly Leadville Junior High School, the Hennebach Wing encompasses more than15,500 sq. ft. of floor space in two stories.

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