Jean Jacques Dozy (18 June 1908, in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

– 1 November 2004, in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

) was a Dutch

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

. In 1936, he participated in the Dutch Carstensz Expedition in

Dutch New Guinea Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea ( nl, Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea, id, Nugini Belanda) was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingdo ...

to explore and climb

Mount Carstensz Puncak Jaya (; literally "Glorious Peak") or Carstensz Pyramid, Mount Jayawijaya or Mount Carstensz () on the island of New Guinea, with an elevation of , is the highest mountain peak of an island on Earth. The mountain is located in the Sudi ...

, the highest mountain of the island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. Besides succeeding in climbing the highest point at the time with

Anton Colijn Antonie Hendrikus Colijn (13 April 1894 in Ambarawa – 11 March 1945 in Muntok) was a Dutch amateur mountaineer who in 1936 led the Carstensz Expedition, being the first to climb the Carstenszgebergte in New Guinea. Colijn was the eldest son ( ...

and Frits Wissel, Dozy discovered the presence of abundant copper ore in a mountain he called Ertsberg (English, "Ore mountain"). Years later this gave rise to the Grasberg copper mine. In 1939, he published an article about his find, but it was neglected due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Twenty years later, the article led to rediscovery of the Ertsberg and the development of the Ertsberg-Grasberg mine complex.

External links

Interview with Dozy at age 93
1908 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Dutch geologists Explorers of New Guinea Leiden University alumni Delft University of Technology faculty Scientists from Rotterdam {{geologist-stub