New Zealand Branch / Members / Michael Henry Buckenham ...

Michael Henry Buckenham
(Born Leeston, Canterbury 30 Oct 1928 of a farming family)

Mick attended The Otago School of Mines (1948-1952), graduating BE in Metallurgy (University of NZ) and Associate of the Otago School of Mines (AOSM), followed by a Master of Engineering (Mining) with distinction.

From 1953, Mick was employed as a Research Metallurgist with The Zinc Corporation and New Broken Hill Mines, Broken Hill, Australia, rising to Acting Chief Research Metallurgist before returning to a Senior Lecturer position at the University of Otago in 1956. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1968 and in 1977 appointed Chairman of the then Department of Mineral Technology (formerly the Otago School of Mines). This department was transferred to the University of Auckland School of Engineering in 1987 and Mick continued as Head of Department until retirement and the closing of the Department in 1994.

Leave from University duties allowed studies at the Henry Krumb School of Mines, Columbia University, New York as an International Nickel Fellow and Fulbright Scholar, and later at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London as a Nuffield Scholar, taking a Master of Science in Engineering with distinction and a Diploma of Imperial College (DIC). Mick was also a Visiting Professor at the Colorado School of Mines near Denver and at the University of Queensland. He also had several international travel and technical missions with United Nations agencies, including assignments in Turkey, Yugoslavia, Iran and China (2).

Mick has consulted to many NZ and overseas mining and related companies, particularly relating to his interests in industrial minerals (particularly phosphate), mineral economics, alluvial mining, gold and technology transfer. He was Director and Deputy Chairman of Crusader Minerals (later Spectrum Resources), and of Aurum Reef Resources (NZ).

Mick joined the AusIMM as a Student in 1952 as an Associate Member and upgraded to Member in 1957 and Fellow in 1965. He has been associated with the NZ Branch since its formation in 1965 and was NZ Branch Chairman twice (1971/72 and 1980/81) and Councillor (NZ) from 1992 to 1997. Mick was elected an Honorary Fellow in 1993 and President in 1997, only the third New Zealander and first since 1911 to hold this position in over 100 years of the Institute.

Mick lives in retirement in Auckland, with some months each year located at Lake Hayes, Central Otago. He is married with four grown up children (all University graduates) and to date eight grandchildren.