and Chile Cooper Companies. On April 30, 1917, the Company secured a controlling interest in the San Marcos mine, located at Sabana Grande, Honduras, and owned by the Sabana Grande Honduras Mining Company. William A. Prendergast was selected as president of the company in 1919. By 1920 WS Valentine was not in the Board of Directors anymore. In 1922 Prendergast becomes chairman of the Board of Directors and Lewis L. Clarke, president of the Company. 1930 – 1978 In 1930 the Board of Directors was: WM. A. Prendergast, Chairman; Sidney Abbey; W.C. Langley; Lewis L. Clarke; W.L. Saunders; H. A. Guess; M. F. Soto; Irving Heidell; Ambrose G. Todd; Dr. J. Ralph Jacoby; Dr. Julius J. Valentine; P.R. Weiler. In 1954, Robert M. Reininger took over leadership of the 75-year-old New York and Honduras Rosario Mining Company, which then held only one old, depleted gold mine and a small new startup mine, El Mochito, in Honduras. From these limited resources, Reininger built Rosario into a powerful and diversified mining and oil company, with interests stretching out to North America, South America, and the North Sea. Under Reininger's leadership, El Mochito, with its rich ore and spectacular wire silver, soon became Central America's largest precious and base metals producer. Out of El Mochito's profits, Rosario made successful investments in new projects in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic, as well as major Canadian gas discovery in 1969 and 1970s oil play in the British North Sea. From these projects flowed a cornucopia of gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, mercury, granite, limestone, and petroleum. These properties, largely developed internally, multiplied the value of the company many times from 1954 through 1980, when Rosario was acquired by AMAX, Inc. Jorge Blanco was made President and led the company until his retirement. He was able to negotiate the terms of the settlement of the indemnification for the mines (La Rosita, et al confiscated by the Sandinista regime) with the post Sandinista government of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. He led the company until his retirement in 1998. In 1969, Rosario discovered the Pueblo Viejo oxide gold deposit in the Dominican Republic, which became at startup in 1975 one of the largest gold mines in the Americas, producing more than 400,000 ounces per year. Also in 1969, Rosario discovered Alberta's prolific Dunvegan Gas Field, up to that time the largest gas