HAMMOND, John Hays, American min ing engineer: b. San Francisco, 31 March 1855. He was graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale in 1876, studied at the Royal School of Mines, Freiburg, Saxony, and became an expert on the United States Geological Sur vey and mineral census, with the duty of ex amining gold mines in California. In 1882 he was appointed superintendent of silver mines in Sonora, Mexico, but later was again in Cali fornia as consulting engineer at mines in Grass Valley, and as consulting engineer to the Union Iron Works at San Francisco, and to the Southern and Central Pacific Railway com panies. In the capacity of consulting engineer he visited many portions of North and South America and Mexico. In 1893 he went to South Africa as consulting engineer to the mining com panies operated there by Barnato Brothers of London. He was associated with Cecil Rhodes in the latter's numerous mining interests and consulting engineer to the Randsfontein Estates Gold Mining Company, the British South Af rican Company (chartered) and the Consoli dated Gold Fields Company. He was one of the
four leaders in the reform movement in the Transvaal and for his connection with the well known Jameson raid, with which, however, he did not sympathise, was sentenced to death by the Boers. This sentence was later commuted to 15 years' imprisonment and then to the payment of a fine of $125,000. He resides in New York, with offices there and in London, and is general manager and consulting engineer of the Guggenheim Exploration Company. one of the largest mining companies in the world. His reputation as a mining expert is world wide. He declined a nomination for the Vice-Presi dency in 1908. He was president of the Amer ican Institute of Mining Engineers in 1907-M served as special Ambassador from the. United States at the coronation of George V of Eng land in 1911.