Mining is an essential part of everyone’s lives, whether they realize this or not. It supplies us with materials for various industries that are crucial to our everyday lives. The benefits of mining are indeed endless: boosting economic development and growth in local communities, generating foreign exchange, contributing to technological advances and creating numerous jobs.
But for some, it is also something that brings people together and creates long-lasting friendships and bonds that carry over past the dozers, drills, excavators, loaders and haul trucks. For some, it is the shared passion and the hobby that drives people to experience ventures together that they will always remember and look back on collectively and say “We did that.” This type of connection is true for Scott Dockter and Earl Harrison, long-time mining colleagues and friends.
Coming from neighboring states, Harrison from Nevada and Dockter from California, both have always had a strong appetite for the mining industry. Harrison was born into a mining family, both his father and his grandfather being miners.
“I mined with my dad when I was a little guy,” Harrison explained. “All through grade school, I buddied up with my best friend. His dad had a mine, and we hung out there all the time and worked underground, and I just caught the underground bug and I’ve never been interested in anything else.”
Before meeting, both had their own extensive experience and projects in the industry. Dockter aired more on the side of corporate development and business in his earlier years of his career, and since then has been the head of eight different companies, serving as Chairman, CEO, COO, President and Director in the various companies. Throughout his career, he has launched and executed several start-ups in the mining industry, and oversaw all aspects of strategic operations including mining processes, exploration, permitting, mine development, financing, operations, and mergers and acquisitions.
Since 1968, Harrison was professionally involved in numerous mines across Nevada State where he was mainly extracting gold, silver, copper, placer and Molybdenum, otherwise known as “Moly.” Harrison oversaw operations at the Savage Mine in Virgina City, NV, Independence Mine in Battle Mountain, NV, and Victorine Mine in Smokey Valley, NV just to name a few. While Nevada was the main homeland for his endeavors, he also dabbled in a few international operations in China, Africa, South America, as well as Alaska and Hawaii in the United States. “I got around quite a bit,” he laughed.
Although every mining endeavor that he was a part of has shaped who he is today, there was a particular project that stood out the most for him, the Ashdown Mine in Denio, Nevada where the molybdenum was produced and sold for a pretty penny. “We took that mine from nothing and made something out of it, and it was interesting. We had so much fun up there, we thought we were breaking the law.”
Harrison and Dockter didn’t cross paths until the year 2000, where Dockter had picked up a mine in Nevada and had a geologist working for him who knew Harrison and introduced them to each other. From there, the pair worked together at the Unimin for a couple of years, and following that Harrison spent four years assisting Dockter at the Victoria Mine, rehabbing the entire mine and its shaft.
“Me and Scott went back and forth with different projects,” Harrison explained. “We’re always looking for a good project to do and it’s fun for me. I enjoy it. Mining is a lot of fun, it’s like ‘trade your hunt’ on a big scale.”
Harrison has even had his fair share of being a US Mine Corp employee, being involved in assistant in rebuilding the entire silica sand plant on the US Mine Corp property, mainly utilizing his trade of welding in that project.
For now, retiring is something that is not in the books for Harrison. He stays busy by offering mining consulting and spending time in his shop building and welding heavy equipment. With his son being a structural engineer, they work together on designing equipment where Harrison puts his fabrication skills to work on building it. More recently, he spent an entire week teaching MSHA Annual Refresher classes to the entire workforce of US Mine Corp.
“I like to help out where I can. I can’t retire. I have to keep working and doing something and staying active. I would go crazy retiring,” he laughed.
Dockter and Harrison are not quite done with their mining ventures. Dockter is very involved as being CEO of his resource and mining companies and continues to look for new opportunities for growth and expansion for them, while Harrison enjoys consulting on the different prospects and projects
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