Daniel Kunz came from Butte, Montana where copper and mining formed the foundation of the city and state for decades. The deep copper mines were world famous and produced much of the nation’s copper and other metals during the electrification of the country and the first world war.  By the mid 1950s some of the deep mines were uneconomic and so bulk open pit mining began at the Berkeley pit. By the mid 1970s the economics of deep mining in Butte forced the closure of the Kelley and Stewart the last of the great shaft mines in Butte. 

Working for Anaconda Company as a geologic technician from 1973 to 1977, Kunz participated in core cutting and logging for the new Continental East molybdenum rich ore deposit.  He saw first-hand many of the hundreds of drill core as he cut them for assay.  But the writing was on the wall as the deep mines began to flood when the pumps were shut down leading to the eventual flooding of the Berkeley Pit.

In 1977, Kunz moved to coal since copper was dead and worked a few years for Peter Kiewit Sons Company in Omaha. Very late one evening, as Kunz was working on a new technology computer model of a Kiewit coal mine, he met another mentor, Mr. Peter Kiewit, who lived on the top floor of the office building and heard about this new computer model and arrived in his slippers and robe and spent hours asking questions and seeing for himself. 

Soon Kunz was hired by a Kiewit competitor, Morrison Knudsen Corporation, in the Mining Group. One of the first development projects Kunz presented was the acquisition of the Anaconda Co from ARCO. Having first-hand knowledge of the massive Continental ore deposit and knowing that, with the Butte concentrator, vast array of open-pit mining equipment and rail and other infrastructure in place, a plan to open the Continental pit and sell moly-rich copper concentrates to Japan would be very successful. Spending months working on the plan, traveling back and forth from Boise to Butte, and obtaining key tax and power rate concessions, Kunz prepared and presented the plan to MK senior management. Needing approximately $10 million in cash, the plan was not able to be executed due to MK’s financial condition at the time. The plan somehow made its way to Missoula, MT and for the next few weeks Kunz was called many times by Mr. Dennis Washington who ask detailed questions about the plan. Soon Washington purchased the Montana operations and became very wealthy. Kunz suggested to Washington that he would become the 4th copper king in Butte history.