Ivan Herring

I started writing books a couple of years ago as a hobby and as a way to archive a lot of the data I have collected over the last 40 years. I have something like 40+ 4-drawer file cabinets in my basement, filled with information on mines I have collected along with another 5 full of electronic data. I am currently approaching 75, so if I live to 150 I might get most of it put into book form.

My educational background started with Chemistry and Math. My Dad worked for Dow Chemical and was a firm believer in a "Science-based education". I will always remember him telling me; "Get your Chemistry and Math first, and then take what you want!" I did not realize, at the time, how good of advice that was or how it would shape my life. After my "Chemistry and Math" I got degrees Business with a emphasis on Economics, International Economics and Finance.

I only worked for a single company, General Motors, for most of my working life. After 38 years, I retired in 2007 (well before the bankruptcy). At GM I started in Finance, where I worked for 16 years. I spent time in the Racing Group and the International Trading Subsidiary (the old Motors Trading Group). The last 17 years were spent in Purchasing where I bought the raw Non-Ferrous Metals for the whole Corporation. The quantities we used were so great, most of our purchases were directly from the mines or refineries, which forced me to learn the entire production cycle. It was there that my Chemistry and Math background came into focus. My Finance background was key as I also was expected to manage the cost of my raw materials. We used traditional "Hedging" to an extent, but our "Market Mass" allowed us to use other tools, such as "Offtake Agreements". These required me to understand the various producers with whom I dealt, the cost basis of their mines, the financing they had to service and basically, the business of mining. I found I loved the subject and was fascinated with its history. Much of the historical and current data I collected is destined for my books. Although I traveled the world (over 100 countries) I have decided to concentrate on the US because one of the reasons we are losing our competitive advantage in the world is we no longer control our sources of raw material.

After retirement I tried consulting and have found it fascinating. I do seminars on Raw Material Cost Management, have worked with the investors of large and small companies being brought out of bankruptcy and identify potential mineral development sites for exploration companies based on historical data. The later works the best for commodities that have risen in price substantially over the last few years, but then again, I guess that is most of them.

I chose the County level approach because I could not find good data on the bulk of mines, ore bodies or the like in an area as small as a county. I went to a number of book publishers to see if I could get them printed and they all said; "Your approach is too specialized, and your audience is too small. It is hard to sell books that cover an entire state." As such, the e-book format seemed the way to go. As the books developed, the e-book format seemed even more appropriate as the size of the books grew. The new, light e-book readers, like the Kindle, are a lot easier to carry than a paper book approaching 1,000 pages in length or a group of large books.

I also believe that the data in this format will be usable by small mining companies, "rockhounds", metal detector enthusiasts, "weekend miners" and others. I have received some interesting feedback on how the books get used. Everything from 4X4 and equestrian enthusiasts, who use the data to identify landmarks; to people with physical handicaps, who use the GPS coordinates to remotely visit sites using tools such as "Google Earth". I have tried to make it more usable by adding entries on Mining Districts and associating many of the mines in each district with the entry. That way, if you plan a visit to a specific mine in the District, and it turns out to be less than you expect, you have some nearby alternatives to keep the outing from being a "bust".

My goal is to produce a book for each County in the historic mining states of the United States. I will concentrate on the more "mining-friendly" states, which means additional California books are a bit distant.

I hope you find the books useful and interesting.