Richard Pearce was born on June 29, 1837 in Camborne, Cornwall, South West England, United Kingdom. He was the son of Richard Donald Pearce and his wife, Jenifer Bennett. He inherited an early interest in mining from his father who was one of the superintendents of Dolcoath, the premier tin mine of Cornwall.
A common-school education was terminated at the age of fourteen, when Richard Pearce went to work in the tin-dressing plant of Dolcoath.
In 1855, when only eighteen years of age, Richard Pearce was appointed assistant in chemistry at the Truro mining school where he taught while continuing his own studies. The school was poorly supported, however, and had to close, and three years later he joined his father at Dolcoath as assayer. After a short interval he was called upon again to start local classes in mining instruction, performing the task so well that he was given the opportunity of entering the Royal School of Mines in London. He equipped himself for further teaching under such distinguished professors as Percy and Hoffman, then went to Freiberg, Saxony, in 1865, for further study at the mining academy where he became interested in metallurgical silver processes, particularly those of Ziervogel and Augustin.
On his return, Richard Pearce built a copper-smelting plant at Swansea in south Wales, directing the operations himself, but he found it difficult to introduce there any practice that was not Welsh. The business, moreover, was conducted on such unsound principles that he was glad to accept the invitation of a London firm to visit Colorado in 1871 to inspect silver mines. He had to render an unfavorable report on this occasion, but he was subsequently asked by the same company to take charge of a smelter to be built in Colorado. Since his health had suffered from the damp climate of Swansea, he welcomed the opportunity to enjoy the clear air and the cheerful atmosphere of the Rocky Mountain region. He sailed from Liverpool with his wife and three children in 1872. The little smelter near Empire in Clear Creek County, Colorado, was soon built and ready for business. Its technical operaations were successful but the supply of pyritic ores was inadequate and the shipments of matte to Swansea entailed a cost which was excessive.
Meanwhile, Richard Pearce had made the acquaintance of Nathaniel Peter Hill, formerly professor of chemistry at Brown University and at that time manager of a smelter at Blackhawk in the adjoining county of Gilpin. The two metallurgists joined forces in building a reduction works in which Pearce's plan for treating the matte and extracting the precious metals was to be given a fair trial. The new plant was in action at Blackhawk by the end of November 1873. Pearce recognized the great responsibility placed upon him by this new position. In commenting upon the difficulties involved in inaugurating a process hitherto untried in America where many things that he needed were not obtainable, he said, "I found myself obliged from the first to introduce what might be termed makeshifts. " Such is the history of technical operations in remote places.
Richard Pearce was successful because he was able to adapt his methods to local conditions and to the exigencies of circumstances, and because his experience at Swansea in devising and superintending metallurgic operations performed by comparatively ignorant men taught him how to train unskilled labor to manipulate the intricate devices of a furnace. During the next thirty years no less than 52 tons of gold (equivalent to $31, 200, 000) were separated and refined for the Boston & Colorado Smelting Company, first at Blackhawk and later at Argo, near Denver, by the process devised and conducted by Richard Pearce. The larger smelter at Argo was built in 1878, and in the following year a branch smelter was built at Butte to provide matte from the ores of Montana. At this time Pearce lived at Denver, a wealthy man and an honored citizen. In 1885 he was appointed British vice-consul.
In 1889 Richard Pearce was elected president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and he was twice president of the Colorado Scientific Society, with which he was closely identified as a charter member and to the Proceedings of which he contributed a number of valuable papers on geology and mineralogy. The mineral, pearceite, a sulphide of silver and arsenic, is named for him. In 1902 he retired from the management of the Argo smelter and returned to Cornwall where, in 1908, he associated himself with Williams, Harvey & Company in building a tin smelter at Bootle, near Liverpool. He was engaged in this pleasant professional activity until 1919 when he left the works in charge of his son and changed his residence to London. There he remained, near to the museums and schools of science, both of which continued to command his lively interest.
Richard Pearce died on May 18, 1927, within a few weeks of his ninetieth birthday.
Richard Pearce was a member of the Royal Geological Society, of the Mineralogical Society. He was twice president of the Colorado Scientific Society and a president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers.
Richard Pearce was essentially a practical man, that is, a man of educated common sense. He was a most congenial and cultured companion, impressing those with whom he came in contact as one possessing a thorough knowledge of his profession.
Richard Pearce was twice married, first to Carolina Maria Lean and, second, to Amelia Elisabeth Hawken.
