In 1890, a young mining engineer named Edmund J. Longyear set a new standard for innovation in mining. Longyear, a member of the first graduating class at the Michigan Mining School, sank the first diamond drill hole on North America’s Mesabi Iron Range in northern Minnesota. Longyear realized there was a need for exploration companies as the US iron ore mining and steel industry continued expanding, and he soon formed a contract diamond drilling company to serve this market.

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