Seeley Mudd won lasting recognition in the mining profession for the immense mineral riches he discovered and developed.​

His career as mining engineer and consultant began in the lead and silver mines of Leadville. As a consultant, he served as the Guggenheim engineer in the West. He set out to verify estimates of ore reserves in Bingham Canyon and his favorable report made him indirectly responsible for the enormous onslaught of work that began at Bingham. While there, Mudd studied D. C. Jackling’s approach to mining low-grade porphyry deposits. Immediately following the assignment, he and his associate, Phillip Wiseman, began a search to identify passed-over low-grade deposits large enough to use Jackling’s techniques. They took an option of the Ray, Arizona property and developed a substantial mine. In May 1907, Ray Consolidated Copper Company was formed with Mudd as Chairman of the Executive Committee.​

He again worked on behalf of the Guggenheims in determining the ore reserves in the Ely district of Nevada, and went on to develop what was later known as The Texas Gulf Sulphur Company, of which he served as the first president.​

He was instrumental in resuscitating the copper mines on the island of Cyprus and later the Mudd family took over the Cyprus Mines Company.​

Seeley Mudd’s contributions were great and, through the Seeley W. Mudd Memorial Fund, the American Institute of Mining Engineers sought to perpetuate his love of the industry by producing outstanding publications for the profession.​

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