Charles Janin died at his home in Piedmont, California, on November 30th, 1937, at the age of 63.
He was born in Oakland, California, and it was there that he received his technical education, taking special courses of instruction- in, surveying, assaying, and other subjects. He was one of a large, mining family, and appropriately he began his professional career as assistant to his father, Mr. Louis Janin, in 1894. He worked underground as a miner in the Nevada City and Grass Valley districts, and had experience in sampling, underground surveying, and gold practice. Later he assisted his father in placer and lode examinations and in legal work. He also assisted Mr. C.F. Hoffmann in the examination of mining properties in California and his brother in Colorado and Nevada.
In 1902, he was appointed examining and consulting engineers for a syndicate in Portland, Oregon, and about three years later he entered into partnership with Mr. Elwyn Stebbins and Mr. Howard D. Smith as consulting mining engineers. The firm, then Janin & Smith, was dissolved in 1910, and he became engaged on various examinations in the U.S.A., Mexico, and Alaska. Later he was engaged by the Nome Syndicate in Alaska. He established an office in San Francisco and worked there for many years, almost up to the time of his death.
Although his experience was wide, he specialized in placer mining and gold dredging and his work led him to visit many countries including Spain, Russia, Malaya, and Canada. During the Great War he assisted the U.S. Bureau of Mines in a consulting capacity and served on a Government committee studying the position of the gold-mining industry of the United States. His contributions to technical literature included many articles in the mining press, and much of his work was published by the U.S. Bureau of Mines.
Mr. Janin was elected a Member of the Institution in 1912.
Vol. 48, Trans IMM 1938-39, pp.833-4.
