Charles Griswald (Riz) Bigelow

May 2, 1931-to-August 5, 2018

Print Friendly Version

Longtime Alaskan resident Charles G. (Riz) Bigelow passed away on August 5th, 2018 in Lewiston, Idaho at the age of 87. Riz was born in Barre, Vermont on May 2, 1931 and was one of four children born to Vernon and Marcella Bigelow. After his high school graduation, the Bigelow family moved from Vermont to Washington State. Bigelow is widely recognized as one of the most successful mineral exploration geologists in Alaskan history. His success stems from his ability to organize, lead and stimulate many excellent economic geologists into making significant mineral discoveries across the 49th State. He himself also participated directly in the search for ore bodies as a technical geologist.

Early Years in the Mining Industry

In 1952, Riz began his Alaskan mining career in Fairbanks, when he became an employee of the United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company (USSR&M), which was operating a large gold-dredging fleet in the Fairbanks area. The 21-year-old Riz would become a fledging shoreman on Dredge #8 in Goldstream Valley and later on Dredge #5, then on Eldorado Creek. During his employment with the USSR&M dredge crews, he became fascinated with complex interactions of the overall gold mining activities, including the operation of the Davidson Ditch, which brought in water for hydraulic stripping and sluicing, the electrical crews from Fairbanks supplying power to the dredge, and the dredge operations themselves. Riz witnessed several cleanups onboard the dredges and later the pouring of gold bars, which took place in Fairbanks. In later years, he fondly remembered many of the old timers such as Paddy, Old Crow, Whiskey Bob, Blacky, Scotty, ‘the Finn’, and ‘Shake-em-up’; it seemed to him that they had no last names! All were finishing off their careers with the USSR&M dredge fleet. The fixed price of gold (at $35/ounce) was predictably dooming the large dredge fleets at Fairbanks, Nome, and in the Klondike of Yukon, Canada and many other smaller dredging firms throughout Alaska and Northern Canada. By the early-to-mid 1960s, all of the dredges would be shut down due to the fixed price of gold—those in Fairbanks and in the Klondike--permanently.

After the 1952 mining season ended in Fairbanks, Riz enrolled as a geology student at Washington State University, earning a BS in Geology in 1956. His first job upon his return to Alaska was working on a biogeochemical nickel-copper research investigation in southeastern Alaska. Besides suffering through the wet and soggy conditions of field work, Bigelow learned much about geochemical sampling concepts, which would prove invaluable during his later years in mineral exploration throughout Alaska. Upon completion of the nickel-copper investigation, he became active in uranium exploration in the western states. By 1958, the ‘Uranium Boom’, which employed hundreds of exploration geologists nationwide, collapsed, and Bigelow found himself out-of-work. Bigelow retooled and helped engineer dam and tunnel locations for hydro-electric projects in Washington State, based out of Bellingham.

Bigelow’s Kennecott/Bear Creek Mining Company Career

Fortune would shine on Riz in 1959, when Russell Chadwick, a major consulting geologist for Bear Creek Mining Company (Bear Creek), the exploration arm of Kennecott Copper Corporation (Kennecott), offered Riz a temporary job at a then little-known copper prospect at Ruby Creek (Bornite) in northwest Alaska. Kennecott had operated limestone-hosted copper mines in the Wrangell Mountains for decades, which were famous for their high copper content. In fact, this is where the company was founded. Due to a combination of economics and ore depletion, Kennecott shut down the famed mines in the Chitina Valley in 1938.

During the mid-1950s, Kennecott sent a large technical team to Alaska headed up by AMHF inductee Alan Mara Bateman to assess the feasibility of reopening their abandoned mines in the Wrangell Mountains. After deciding that it was not feasible to resume mining there, Bateman’s team became aware of the newly discovered, limestone hosted, high grade copper deposits at Ruby Creek (Bornite) in the western Brooks Range. In mid-1950s, after noting some general geological similarities to the past high grade copper mines in the Wrangell Mountains, Kennecott decided to acquire Bornite from AMHF inductees Reinhart Berg and several other junior partners, including Jack Bullock of Kotzebue and AMHF Inductee Charles C. ‘Chuck’ Herbert then of Fairbanks. In the 1940s-early 1950s, Berg had initiated an exploration program in the Cosmos Hills area, which included core-drilling into copper-rich zones.

Kobuk River pioneers Tony and May Bernhardt, Al Stout and Oro Stewart would variously involve Bigelow in small scale placer gold and nephrite jade mining ventures at Dahl Creek. But his main assignment as a junior geologist with Bear Creek involved a myriad of tasks including surveying, rock sampling, camp construction, core handling, personnel management and electrical wiring projects. His duties expanded to include all aspects of modern mineral exploration, including down-hole surveying and new computer-based analysis of the high-grade copper-bearing zones. Besides copper, zinc, lead cobalt, silver and trace uranium were also encountered in the Ruby Creek system. From 1960-1963, Riz personally logged thousands of feet of core and, with other colleagues, worked out the geological model of the reef structures which hosted the high-grade copper mineralization at Ruby Creek.

In 1964, Kennecott, the parent company of Bear Creek, took over the Bornite project and conducted advanced exploration and development activities on the property until 1968. Kennecott contracted Seattle-based B&R Barging to freight mining equipment up the Kobuk River from the coast and constructed a 15-mile-long road to Ruby Creek from the Kobuk River. For four years, Kennecott hired nearly 200 employees to work at Ruby Creek—many from northwest Alaska. Kennecott first initiated a major shaft sinking (to 1,075 feet depth) to carry out engineering studies at the main Ruby Creek prospect. During the same time, Kennecott’s subsidiary, Bear Creek, began a regional exploration program of not only other limestone-bearing regions in the Cosmos Hills but also exploration in the practically unexplored southern Brooks Range. Bigelow was appointed Bear Creek’s district geologist for those efforts.

Riz Bigelow became an economic geologist when new scientific theories about the origin of continents and metallic mineral deposits greatly influenced the mining industry’s approach to mineral exploration. The now accepted plate tectonic theory provided for predictive metallogenic models on how and where mineral belts existed in the earth’s crust. For example, knowledge on how mineral deposit types related to the formation of island arcs (porphyry copper-molybdenum; base metal ‘VMS’ massive sulfides) and base metal mineralization in sedimentary basins within tectonic rifts (‘SEDEX’ deposits) were used as predictive tools by exploration firms on where to focus their search for mineral endowment. During his lengthy career, Bigelow and colleagues utilized modern plate tectonic theory to focus the search for mineral resources. His innovative ideas and unrelenting hard work led to the discovery of numerous mineral deposits of gold, copper and other commodities; several of them are now in commercial production.

Riz, along with many colleagues and enlightened managers, including Paul Bailly, Harry Burgess, Norm Lutz, Doug Cook, Clint Degenhart, Russ Babcock, Richard (Dick) Walters, Joe Ruzicka and many others would begin to find additional promising copper prospects, the first, what is now known as ‘Omar’, about 100 miles west of Ruby Creek. Utilizing his geochemical expertise acquired during his work in Southeast Alaska, Bigelow discerned that subtle, elevated copper values in stream sediments delineated a copper-bearing belt in metamorphosed schist extending from Walker Lake on the east to Omar on the west, a distance of more than 100 miles. He and others at Bear Creek also recognized that regionally metamorphosed schist in the trend contained felsic metavolcanic buildups interpreted to be components of a regional magmatic (island?) arc, which could conform to areas hosting the now defined Kuroko volcanogenic massive sulfide base metal deposit model (VMS) recognized worldwide.

Bigelow’s exploration crews focused on areas where elevated copper values in stream sediments corresponded with felsic, meta-volcanic buildups in the schist section. By 1967, a number of volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits were discovered in what became known as the Ambler Mineral Belt. Highlighting all this was the 1965 discovery of the Arctic deposit, a world class concentration of copper, zinc, gold, and silver coincidentally just north-northeast of the Ruby Creek (Bornite) area. Bigelow would later extend Bear Creek’s exploration into the northeastern Seward Peninsula and the Chandalar District northeast of Wisemen near the Dalton highway, where promising, high grade copper skarn deposits were discovered and drill-tested.

By 1968, Kennecott pulled in it’s horns in northwest Alaska. Technical difficulties with shaft sinking at Bornite caused by strong artesian water flow, which flooded the shaft, stopped engineering studies. Coupled with uncertainties about transportation and energy infrastructure issues and lower copper prices, Kennecott pulled out, but left Bear Creek to continue regional exploration. Yet the world-class copper (and cobalt) asset at Bornite/Ruby Creek was not forgotten and the Bornite and Arctic deposits are currently being aggressively explored and developed by Ambler Metals LLC. From 1968-70, Riz would initiate grassroots exploration programs in Prince William Sound and the Alaska Peninsula regions for Bear Creek. He attended Harvard Business School under Kennecott sponsorship in 1971.

Bigelow’s WGM Inc. Career

After thirteen (13) loyal years with Bear Creek and Kennecott, Riz Bigelow left the company in 1972 to found WGM Inc., an Anchorage-based consulting firm, which was originally a subsidiary of Watts, Griffis and McQuat of Ontario, Canada. For decades, Riz would design well financed and well thought out exploration programs throughout Alaska. Under Bigelow’s direction WGM Inc. clients included Native Regional Corporations, combinations of small to larger scale mining companies interested in regional or focused exploration, and government organizations, many of those contracts with the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Space does not allow for detailed analysis of the numerous projects undertaken by WGM Inc. under the direction of Bigelow. A few are highlighted below.

Riz was instrumental in the 1974 formation of the Pan Sound Joint Venture, an exploration consortium that included Noranda Exploration, Marietta Resources International (Marietta), Exalas Resources, and Texas Gas Exploration. Noranda was operational manager. Riz assumed the lead role in planning a regional analysis of the mineral potential of Southeast Alaska. After reviewing the geologic framework of the region, Bigelow’s team surmised that a significant metavolcanic bearing section of presumed Triassic age occurred in the Hyde Group of the Alexander Terrane exposed in the Southeast Panhandle. The Triassic magmatic arc outcrops nearly continuously from southern Prince of Wales Island to Haines, a distance of about 300 miles. Using the same assumptions and exploration philosophy as deployed in the Ambler Mineral Belt, work by the Pan Sound Joint Venture focused in areas that contained a combination of elevated base metals in stream sediment accompanied by rock lithologies indicating the presence of meta-volcanics. One such target area was on Admiralty Island near Hawk Inlet.

In 1977, a prominent iron oxide gossan named ‘The Big Sore’ was first noted by geologists Bill Block and Joe Dreschler on northern Admiralty Island, due west of Juneau. The Big Sore was the surface manifestation of the Greens Creek polymetallic deposit, one of the highest grade volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits ever found. The 1980 ANILCA Act allowed for development of the Greens Creek deposit, which is a non-wilderness portion of Admiralty Island National Monument. Anaconda Minerals would acquire the interest in Greens Creek previously held by Marietta in 1983. First placed into production in 1989 by Kennecott-Greens Creek Mining Company, the deposit continues to yield sulfide concentrates for overseas markets by current operator/owner Hecla-Greens Creek Mining Company. Greens Creek mine is the nation’s largest silver mine as well as a significant producer of zinc, lead and gold. Geologist Tom Andrews dedicated the Big Sore discovery outcrop to Riz Bigelow to honor his involvement in the overall success of the Pan Sound Joint Venture exploration program.

Besides continuing his successful career with discovering new Alaskan ore deposits, Riz Bigelow would often say that his most gratifying experiences was his firm, WGM Inc., assisting newly formed Alaska Native Regional Corporations in the prioritization of their lands for mineral endowment granted to them under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). In 1972, Murray Watts of the original Watts Griffis and McQuat Inc. introduced Riz to the leadership of Doyon Limited, the large regional native corporation based in Fairbanks. Riz would ultimately assist Doyon in the review of more than 50,000 square miles of selected lands in more than 20 separate blocks. By 1975, WGM Inc. mounted a major search for mineral endowment in interior Alaska. Doyon acquired from WGM valuable information for hundreds of townships, which aided their land selection decisions.

One property of note was the Slate Creek asbestos deposit in the 40 Mile District. Originally released in an open file report by U.S. Geological Survey geologist Helen Foster, Doyon acquired the deposit as part of their ANCSA land selections. Drill testing showed that the deposit contained an estimated 55 million tons averaging 6.35 percent ‘Cassiar grade’ chrysotile fiber. It is not a stretch to say that the Slate Creek asbestos deposit was the most important asbestos discovery in North America in more than 30 years. However, deleterious environmental effects caused by chrysotile asbestos use, once considered a ‘wonder mineral’ for its effective fire prevention properties in modern buildings, pipe fitting applications, in automotive uses such as brake linings, and in marine vessels, would ultimately prevent the development of the resource. Other mineral projects undertaken on Doyon Lands included drill-testing of promising, high grade base metal deposits in the 40-Mile Region, which contain significant high-grade resources of lead and silver.

Bigelow’s WGM Inc. mineral assessments in northwest Alaska played an important role in assessing mineral endowment of the NANA region. WGM Inc. received a contract from the U.S. Bureau of Mines to investigate the mineral potential of portions of northwest Alaska, which would substantiate the significance of mineralization at Red Dog Creek first recognized in 1968-1970 by AMHF inductees Irv Tailleur of the U.S. Geological Survey and prospector/pilot Bob Baker. As a result of the confirmation of volume and richness of the zinc-lead-barite mineralization exposed at Red Dog Creek, NANA Regional Corporation selected the Red Dog area as a portion of the ANCSA entitlement. Beginning in 1989, the NANA-owned Red Dog mine, which is currently operated by Teck Alaska Inc., has been one of the world’s largest producers of mined zinc—and judged by many to be Alaska’s most important mineral development. WGM Inc. was involved in the discovery of other important lead-zinc-silver resources in northwest Alaska. WGM Inc. geologists Rick Fredericksen, Gaylord Cleveland, and Jerald Harmon would explore the critical 1978 Lik SEDEX mineral deposit drilling program, with indicated a large resource containing 12% combined lead and zinc and a healthy byproduct of silver. This Lik deposit occurs on Alaska State lands and could be developed in the future to sustain metal output in the now variously recognized as the Red Dog-Noatak Mineral Provence.

WGM’s involvement in successful mineral projects were not confined to base metals. During the 1980s and 1990s, WGM Inc. geologist Jason Bressler and colleagues drill-tested the Denali placer gold mine along the Denali Highway north of Anchorage. This became one of Alaska’s largest historic placer gold producers, eventually yielding more than 500,000 ounces of placer gold from 1981-1995.

Beginning in the early 1980s, WGM Inc., carried out a multiyear exploration program with Sumitomo Metal and Mining of Japan. The project, known as the Stoneboy Joint Venture, was originally designed to investigate base metal anomalies thought to indicate the presence of SEDEX and/or VMS deposits hosted in the Yukon-Tanana Terrane. But in 1994, during the drill-testing of gold-in-soil anomalies and follow-up geophysical investigations carried out by a previous exploration firm in a poorly explored portion of the Goodpaster mining district, WGM Inc. geologist Jason Bressler and his colleagues discovered the Pogo gold deposit. When placed into production in 2006, Pogo became Alaska’s second largest gold producer. To date, more than four million ounces of gold have been produced from the Pogo mine.

Riz continued professional involvement in Alaskan ore deposit evaluations into the 21st Century. Riz was President and Chief Executive officer of Ventures Resources Corporation (Ventures), a junior company established in the late 1990s formed to evaluate the lode gold potential in the historic Iditarod mining district in southwest Alaska. Much of the land being explored and drill-tested by Ventures were owned by Doyon Limited. He retired from Ventures in 2005.

Riz joined the board of Goldrich Mining Company (formerly Little Squaw Gold Mining Company) in 2003, which has significant mining clam properties in the famed Chandalar placer and lode mining district in the east-central Brooks Range. While associated with Goldrich, Riz himself conducted petrologic examination of ore zones and host rock and judged that the Mikado gold-quartz mine and related gold deposit were probably formed in orogenic conditions, and exploration should be carried out with that model in mind. He remained on the Board of Goldrich until 2017—finally retiring at the age of 86.

Retirement and Legacy

Riz Bigelow would finally enter a much-deserved retirement into the early 21st Century after sixty+ years of work in the mineral exploration field. His work as both field geologist and as an effective exploration program designer helped lay the groundwork for three world class Alaskan mineral properties entering into commercial production. In the writer’s opinion, there is no other geologist or engineer engaged in Alaska’s mineral exploration industry that can be compared to Riz Bigelow.

Besides his illustrious mineral exploration career, Bigelow was involved in a number of civic, professional and public functions. He served on the State of Alaska’s Geological Map Advisory Board, and was a past President of the Alaska Chapter of the American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG). The late Ross G. Schaff, a former State Geologist, would say that Bigelow’s support for the State’s geological mapping programs during the 1970s to 1990s was crucial, when the state’s mapping budget was being challenged.

Riz was a man of many passions and interests. Some were history, a broad range of music from classical to folk, jazz and many others, theatre, sports, and gardening. His flower gardens were on the Anchorage “Tour of Gardens”. His children and grandchildren will always remember him for singing songs, reading to them, and for his colorful stories. He was a wonderful storyteller who infused his experiences with wit and charm. Riz enjoyed nothing more than a stimulating conversation and was known for his biting wit and humor. Riz was also a romanticist, scientist, adventurist, explorer, and a man highly respected by his peers.

Besides his illustrious mineral exploration career, Bigelow was involved in a number of civic, professional and public functions. He served on the State of Alaska’s Geological Map Advisory Board, and was a past President of the Alaska Chapter of the American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG). The late Ross G. Schaff, a former State Geologist, would say that Bigelow’s support for the State’s geological mapping programs during the 1970s to 1990s was crucial, when the state’s mapping budget was being challenged.

Riz was a man of many passions and interests. Some were history, a broad range of music from classical to folk, jazz and many others, theatre, sports, and gardening. His flower gardens were on the Anchorage “Tour of Gardens”. His children and grandchildren will always remember him for singing songs, reading to them, and for his colorful stories. He was a wonderful storyteller who infused his experiences with wit and charm. Riz enjoyed nothing more than a stimulating conversation and was known for his biting wit and humor. Riz was also a romanticist, scientist, adventurist, explorer, and a man highly respected by his peers.

At the time of his passing, Riz was preceded in death by his parents and brothers Vernon Bigelow Jr. and Timothy Bigelow. At the time of his passing, he was survived by his sister Melissa Walworth of Boise, Idaho, his first wife Joyce (Woods) Bigelow-Jarvis of Ferndale, Washington and their three children Charles Bigelow Jr. of Ashland, Oregon, Weston Bigelow of Eugene, Oregon, and Cynthia Bigelow of Okanogan, Washington, and his loving spouse Donna (Morris) Bigelow of Lewiston, Idaho and their two children Adam Bigelow of Wasilla, Alaska and Elizabeth Bigelow of Lewiston, Idaho. He is also survived by seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren as well numerous, nieces and nephews.

Written/Compiled by Tom Bundtzen; Reviewed by Mitchell Henning and Harold J. Noyes.

Selected References

Berg, Rhinehart, 1998, Rhinehart Berg: A Twentieth Century Pioneer, in, Hawley, Jenny and Hawley, Chuck, editors: The Alaska Miner—Journal of the Alaska Miners Association, Volume 26, No. 2, pages 10-11, 14-15.

Bundtzen, T.K., Eakins, G.R., and Conwell, C.N., 1982, Alaska’s Mineral Industry—1981: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Survey and Department of Commerce and Economic Development Special Report, 117 pages.

Bundtzen, T.K., Eakins, G.R., Clough, Lueck, L.L., Green, C.B., Robinson, M.S., and Coleman, D.A., 1984, Alaska’s Mineral Industry 1983: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Special Report 33, 56 pages.

Chadwick, R.H.W., 1960, Copper deposits of the Ruby Creek area, Ambler River Quadrangle, Alaska: Unpublished paper given at 5th Annual Alaskan A.I.M.E. Conference, College, Alaska, April 11-13, 10 pages.

Degenhart, C.E., and others, 1978, Mineral studies in the Western Brooks Range Performed under contract to the U.S. Bureau of Mines: Contract #J0155089; USBM Open File report 103-78.

Fernette, Greg, 1982, Exploration, in, Rennick, Penny, editor, Alaska’s Oil and Gas and Minerals Industry: Alaska Geographic, Volume 9, No. 4, Pages 74-87.

Fritts, C.E., 1970, Geology and Geochemistry of the Cosmos Hills, Ambler River and Shungnak Quadrangles, Alaska: Alaska Division of Mines and Geology Geologic Report 39, 69 pages.

Lesper, Lee, editor, 2018, Remembering Alaska Mining Pioneer Riz Bigelow: The Alaska Miner, Journal of the Alaska Miners Association: Volume 46, No. 9, page 9.

Lutz, Norman, 1963, Copper deposits at Ruby Creek, Alaska: Unpublished paper presented at Northwest Mining Association Convention, Spokane, Washington, December 12th, 7 pages.

Rennick, Penny, 1982, The Story of Riz Bigelow, in, Rennick, Penny, editor, Alaska’s Oil and Gas and Minerals Industry: Alaska Geographic, Volume 9, No. 4, Pages 88-117.

Runnells, D.D., 1963, The copper deposits of the Ruby Creek, Cosmos Hills, Alaska, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University, PhD Dissertation 274 pages; Microfiles at Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Runnells, D.D, 1966, Mineralization of the Ruby Creek (Bornite) copper deposit, Cosmos Hills, Alaska, Economic Geology Vol. 61, no. 7, page 1305.

West, Andrew W., 2010, The history of Greens Creek exploration, in, Taylor, Cliff D., and Johnson, Craig A., editors, Geology, geochemistry, and genesis of the Greens Creek massive sulfide deposit, Admiralty Island, Southeastern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1763, 429 pages (pages 65-92).

Top of Page

 

 

Home | In Memory | About Us | Inductees | Paystreak | AMHFF News | Nominate | The '98ers | Recent Contributions | Contribute | Contact | Site Map
©2023 Alaska Mining Hall of Fame Foundation
Today is Sunday, 01 December 2024.