Robert Carl Sticht

Robert Carl Sticht (8 October 1856 – 30 April 1922) was an American metallurgist and copper mine manager, active in Colorado and Montana, U.S.A. and in Tasmania, Australia. Sticht was the developer of the first successful purely pyritic smelting in the world.

Sticht was born at Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.A., the son of German-American parents from Brooklyn, his father's name was John C. Sticht. Sticht studied at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and graduated from there with B.Sc. in 1875, then went studied metallurgy at the Clausthal Royal Mining Academy, Germany, where he graduated with honours in 1880.

Returning to the U.S.A., Sticht was appointed chief chemist and assistant metallurgist at a Colorado smelting company and erected smelters in Colorado and Montana. In 1893, on the recommendation of the American mining expert Edward Dyer Peters, Sticht was appointed chief metallurgist to the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Co. Ltd. in Tasmania. Sticht married Marion Oak née Staige, of Illinois in January 1895. The newly married couple arrived in Queenstown, Tasmania around July 1895.

Sticht persuaded the company to use pyritic smelting, designed and supervised the erection of the reduction works plant and in 1897 was appointed general manager of the company. His successful dealing with pyritic ores marked him out as a great metallurgist. Other difficult problems arose but each was successfully dealt with as it came, and his ability in selecting suitable assistants and heads of departments was a great factor in the continued success of the company. Although a technical success, pyritic smelting had a "horrendous cost to the environment in the destruction of a vast area of rainforest and in pollution of rivers".

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