he left the company, the Pilares mine was a profitable, low-cost copper producer, mining ore with less than 3% copper, a record at the time. Also he had gained maturity as a mine manager and had become a sought after metallurgist. In this same time period, Dr. Ricketts designed another modern copper concentrator for the Detroit Copper Mining Company of Arizona (another Phelps Dodge controlled company) at Morenci, Arizona, and invested in what became the Valley National Bank, one of the first substantial banks in Arizona. Ricketts continued to serve as a Valley Bank executive for the rest of his life. Preeminent consultant metallurgist In 1901, he opened office as a consultant and became legendary for his designs of major metallurgical works during the early twentieth century copper boom. Over the next decade and a half, Ricketts designed new smelters and/or concentrators, for example, at Old Dominion copper mine at Globe, Arizona (Phelps Dodge controlled), for the Copper Queen (Phelps Dodge) at Douglas and Bisbee, at Miami, at Cananea, and at Clifton, plus a coal washing plant for Phelps Dodge at Dawson, New Mexico. During this period, he also served as president and general manager of the Anaconda interests at Cananea, Sonora, rebuilding its metallurgical works. Since 1907, Arizona copper mines have produced over half the nation's copper, much of the first three decades of this copper was processed through mills designed by Ricketts. On November 18, 1915, because of his work in developing the state's mineral resources, the governor of Arizona honored Ricketts with a medal and special ceremony at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, as the "most distinguished citizen of Arizona." Ricketts' most significant metallurgical innovations came in the 1910s. As a consulting engineer for the Inspiration copper mine and International smelter in Miami, Arizona (1912–1915), owned by Anaconda, he introduced the first froth flotation plant at a major copper works. Also significant was his work, with John Campbell Greenway, in developing the innovative copper-leaching technology with electrolytic refining for ore from the New Cornelia mine at Ajo, Arizona (1911-1916). At Ajo, his fortune was made. With help of staffs of chemists this leaching technology was adopted at other works, such as his introduction of the process at Inspiration, and was a direct descendant of his work for Dr. Douglas in 1891. This process is the basis for all modern leaching (or solvent) processes used in copper mines