George Hearst - Investments

Investments

As a partner of Hearst, Haggin, Tevis and Co., Hearst had interests in the Comstock Lode and the Ophir mine in Nevada, the Ontario silver mine in Utah, the Homestake gold mine in South Dakota (his pursuit of which is dramatized in the HBO television series Deadwood), and the Anaconda Copper Mine in Montana. (He later invested in the Cerro de Pasco Mine in Peru.) The company grew to be the largest private mining firm in the United States. Hearst acquired the reputation of being the most expert prospector and judge of mining property on the Pacific coast, and contributed to the development of the modern processes of quartz and other kinds of mining. Another of his holdings, that his son insisted on taking control of, was the San Francisco Examiner, which became the foundation of the Hearst publishing empire. He bought the newspaper as a sign of loyalty to his friends by accepting it as payment for gambling debt owed to him. One of his biggest investments was the Homestake Mine in South Dakota in 1877. Although the gold ore was lean, it was a massive deposit that remained as an active mine until 2002.