Hugh C. Ingle Jr. was an independent small mines operator from 1948 to 1999 and worked on mines such as the Corona Mine in California and was a coal mine researcher for the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Ingle was born in 1923 and grew up in a mining family in California and Oregon. In 1943 he joined the Naval Air Reserve as a fighter pilot and saw combat in Korea. In 1955 Ingle began working in the Corona Mine in California recovering mercury and moved to managing and operating other small mines in California and Nevada. Ingle worked as a mining consultant to maintain a steady income and went abroad to consult for mines in Brazil, Congo and Mexico. He also was a coal mine researcher for the U.S. Bureau of Mines and served on the Nevada Commission on Mineral Resources from 1991 to 1999. In this interview Ingle discusses his early life working in the mines, forty year career as a pilot, Corona Mine, mine safety, solving geological and metallurgical problems, ore sampling and grade control, peculiarities of manganese, dredging for tantalum, mine leasing, and adverse effects of government regulations on small mines.