JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Sydney-listed drilling company Boart Longyear founder Edmund J Longyear has been nominated for induction into the International Mining Hall of Fame in the exploration category.

The mining engineer, who passed away in 1954, was nominated for his influence in contract diamond drilling, geological services and shaft sinking in the early part of the twentieth century, during which time he serviced the rapidly growing US iron-ore mining and steel industries.

Longyear, who was inducted into the US National Mining Hall of Fame in 1990, drilled the first diamond core hole in the Mesabi iron range in northern Minnesota in 1890, and later formed the EJ Longyear Company.

This company, which would eventually become Boart Longyear, developed the wireline-retrieved Q-core barrel, which revolutionised the exploration business and is still the standard used for exploration drilling.

Later, in 1936, South Africa’s Anglo American Corporation formed Boart Products South Africa, which was later renamed Boart International.

The new company developed the first mechanically set diamond core bits, which were less expensive than the hand-set core bits that used more expensive Brazilian diamonds.

After the death of Robert Longyear, Edmund’s son, in 1970, Boart International bought out the remaining interest in Longyear, forming the Boart Longyear group.

In 2005, Anglo American sold the group, which it considered a noncore asset, to private equity group Advent International for $545-million.

A panel of 200 experts and leaders in the fields of exploration, mining and processing will vote on the nominations for the International Mining Hall of Fame, which claims to be the only hall of fame to recognise the global innovators in the mining industry.

Of the accepted nominations, only 14 will be inducted into the International Mining Hall of Fame during a gala dinner hosted in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February 22.

Categories for the nominations include safety; exploration; underground development; underground production; underground load and haul; underground support; surface mine production; surface mine load and haul; mining software; comminution; concentration; bulk handling; tailings management; and outstanding innovator.