John Kinnison earned his master's in geology from the University of Arizona in 1958. He spent over twelve years with ASARCO. He was a consultant to the mining industry from 1973 to the early 1980s. He specialized in porphyry copper exploration in the Southwest U.S., but also worked in Mexico, Canada and the Western U.S., exploring base and precious metal veins and replacements, uranium, mercury, and gold placers. His professional work included management, target generation, ore reserves and mine evaluation. He had a professional history of general exploration, mine geology, sampling methods, surface mapping, extensive reconnaissance observation and mapping, and successful exploration for new ore deposits. The collection contains geologic reports, assays, maps, drill logs, correspondence and many published papers.
