James M. Orr was an entrepreneur in the mining industry in North and South American from the 1930s to the 1990s. Orr was born in 1911 and raised in British Columbia and had his first experience working in a mine at the age of 14. He began working in the Vancouver mine during his time in university before moving to Cominco. Orr then went on to receive his graduate degree from CalTech and went on to work as a consulting engineer before developing Orr Engineering and Chemical Company in the 1950s. In this interview, Orr discusses his background in British Columbia, working for Cominco, CalTech and the use of the spectrograph, domestic production of activated iron oxide, working for Iron Fireman during WWII, managing Utash uranium mines, mining diamonds in Brazil, teaching at the University of Alaska and Peralta Colleges, graduate work at Stanford, Colorado oil ventures, Feather Fork Mine Corporation in California and his family and citizenship.