Charles Butters (August 10, 1854November 27, 1933) was an American metallurgist, engineer and mine owner. A graduate of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Fran ...

, he moved to Southern Africa in 1890 to construct a chlorination plant for Hermann Eckstein & Company. Whilst there Butters pioneered the use of the

gold cyanidation Gold cyanidation (also known as the cyanide process or the MacArthur-Forrest process) is a hydrometallurgical technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore by converting the gold to a water-soluble coordination complex. It is the most commonl ...

process for extracting the metal from low grade ore, which opened up new deposits in

Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...

. He also developed other methods that increased extraction efficiency. Butters left Eckstein in 1894 to jointly found a new firm, the Rand Central Ore Reduction Company. He joined the

Johannesburg Reform Committee The Reform Committee was an organisation of prominent Johannesburg citizens which existed late 1895/early 1896. History The Transvaal gold rush had brought in a considerable foreign population, chiefly British although there were substantial min ...

in 1895, a group of mostly immigrants to South Africa who demanded, among other things, a stable constitution, an independent judiciary, and a better educational system; he participated in the

Jameson Raid The Jameson Raid (29 December 1895 – 2 January 1896) was a botched raid against the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil ...

, a botched attempt against the

South African Republic The South African Republic ( nl, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, abbreviated ZAR; af, Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer Republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when i ...

, and was fined $2,000. Butters returned to the United States in 1898 where he ran his own company, Chas. Butters & Co Ltd. By 1907 he had amassed a significant fortune from his mining operations. Butters proposed that his mines in Mexico be permitted to mint their own coinage, which would reduce the supply of silver bullion and increase the sale price. Butters risked execution by firing squad by taking steps to protect his mines in Nicaragua during the 1926–27 civil war.

Early life and career

Charles Butters was born in

Haverhill, Massachusetts Haverhill ( ) is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Haverhill is located 35 miles north of Boston on the New Hampshire border and about 17 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The population was 67,787 at the 2020 United States Ce ...

, on August 10, 1854. After graduating from the

he worked as a metallurgist in mines in the Western United States.

Southern Africa

Butters traveled to the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

in 1890 to construct a chlorination plant to treat ore at the Robinson Gold Mine for Hermann Eckstein & Company. Whilst in southern Africa he pioneered the use of the

process for extracting gold from low grade ore. This revolutionised gold mining in

as it was much more efficient than the

vanning Vanning is a type of ore dressing by which ores are washed on a shovel. Typically, a powdered sample of orestuff is swirled with water on the blade of a shovel and then given a series of upward flicking motions. The heavier ore is tossed up throu ...

and shaking table methods and allowed the exploitation of many deposits previously ruled out as being too low in yield. Butters also developed the Butters and Meins' Mechanical Distributor which removed slime from sand

tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction ( gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overl ...

to allow them to be treated by cyanide process, further improving efficiencies. By 1894 Butters was experimenting with the treatment of the slime with lime and in settlement tanks to allow residual gold to be extracted. Butters left Hermann Eckstein & Company in 1894 to become a founder of the Rand Central Ore Reduction Company. He joined the

in 1895 and at the end of that year took part in the

. After the raid he was arrested, sentenced as an accomplice and fined $2,000.

Return to United States

Butters returned to the United States in 1898 and ran his own firm Chas. Butters & Co Ltd. He was described as having "gained a magnificent fortune" by 1907 by which point one of his gold mines his company purchased for $40,000 cash had generated $3 million in dividends, with a further $3 million of ore identified in the mine. Butters owned a large estate in

Rockridge, Oakland, California Rockridge is a residential neighborhood and commercial district in Oakland, California. Rockridge is generally defined as the area east of Telegraph Avenue, south of the Berkeley city limits, west of the Oakland hills and north of the interse ...

, and, in 1911, opposed the extension of the Oakland, Antioch and Eastern Railroad, which passed by his estate and he considered to be a nuisance. In 1920 Butters proposed establishing mints in Mexico to produce silver coinage which would be used to pay taxes to the Mexican government and the salaries of mine employees. This scheme, which came to be known as the Butters Plan, would reduce the supply of silver bullion, causing an increase in price, and allow mines to purchase goods with coin for export. The bullion had previously been transported to India and China where it was sold at a fixed price under the

Pittman Act The Pittman Act was a United States federal law sponsored by Senator Key Pittman of Nevada and enacted on April 23, 1918. The Act authorized the conversion of not exceeding 350,000,000 standard silver dollars into bullion and its sale or use for ...

. Butters considered the previous arrangement served to the benefit of the British government, who controlled the eastern silver trade, at the expense of his mines. In 1927 Butters risked a firing squad when he took steps to protect his mines in Nicaragua during the civil war. Butters was an associate member of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

and, in 1931, received a medal from the Mining and Metallurgical Society of Freiburg, Germany for his research work. Butters was married to Jessie Butters and died in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, on November 27, 1933. His papers are held in the archive of the

University of California, Berkeley Libraries Thirty-one constituent and affiliated libraries combine to make the library system of the University of California, Berkeley the List of largest libraries in the United States#Largest research libraries, seventh largest research library by number o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butters, Charles 1854 births 1933 deaths People from Haverhill, Massachusetts American metallurgists American mining engineers American mining businesspeople University of California alumni