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Canadian Mining Hall of Fame

Donald A. McLeod (b. 1928) – 2017 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Donald McLeod is a revered and iconic figure in Canada’s mining industry and an inspirational role model for young mining entrepreneurs. Born and raised in Stewart, B.C., he began his career as a pack-horse operator and miner’s helper in the 1940s, and went on to become a successful mine finder, developer, and founder of the Vancouver-based Northair Group of Companies.

He is best known for developing the Brandywine and Summit gold mines in BC, and for making high-grade gold discoveries at the Brucejack project. He also mentored and encouraged countless people to pursue opportunities in the mining industry, including his daughter Catherine and son Bruce, who both achieved success in their own rights.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

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Robert R. McEwen (b. 1950) – 2017 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Robert (Rob) McEwen is one of Canada’s most innovative, original and dynamic mining entrepreneurs. He is best known for transforming Goldcorp Inc. from a holding company into a global gold-mining powerhouse and revitalizing Ontario’s Red Lake gold mine through the discovery of new high-grade resources at depth.

His famous “Goldcorp Challenge” in 2000, which provided open access to 50 years of proprietary geological data from Red Lake and offered prizes to anyone who could find the next six million ounces of gold, created an estimated $6 billion of value from subsequent discoveries.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

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James E. C. Carter (b. 1950) – 2017 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

James Carter is a giant in the history of Canada’s oilsands and an exemplary leader in their sustainable development. He transformed the fledgling industry — and the frontier town of Fort McMurray, Alta. — into a powerful economic engine for the nation while building Syncrude Canada into one of the world’s largest and most successful energy producers.

During his 28-year career with Syncrude, Carter revolutionized the oilsands industry through bold innovation. He championed development of the world’s largest trucks and shovels and introduced hydro-transport of oilsands and other leading-edge technologies that cost-effectively improved the industry’s performance.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

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Harold (Hank) Williams (1934–2010) – 2016 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

Harold (Hank) Williams
Harold (Hank) Williams

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

The island of Newfoundland inspired Harold (Hank) Williams during his fruitful years with the GSC and prolific career at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador in St. John’s. A GSC mapping program on the island led to his seminal 1964 paper, The Appalachians in Northeastern Newfoundland: A Two-Sided Symmetrical System, which advanced the ground-breaking concept of plate tectonics for the first time. His landmark paper and 1967 geological compilation map of Newfoundland represented the first on-land syntheses of an orogenic belt in a tectonic framework.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Williams continued his work at Memorial to international acclaim. One of his greatest achievements was synthesizing the Appalachian mountain chain from Alabama to Newfoundland, which interpreted terrane divisions across the Atlantic. The implications for mineral exploration were exciting, and plate tectonics, once hotly debated, became widely accepted around the world.

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Louis Gignac (b. 1950) – 2016 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

Louis Gignac

Louis Gignac

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Louis Gignac contributed to the stature of Canada’s mining industry during his exemplary career as a company builder, mine operator and developer, and advocate of the industry’s best practices. He is known for building Quebec-based Cambior into an intermediate gold producer and mentoring a new generation of mining talent. Louis Gignac has developed and operated more than 20 domestic and international mines since the 1980s, and applies his expertise to mine development projects managed by his independent consulting firm, G Mining Services Inc.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Born in Sherbrooke, Que., Gignac holds a degree in mining engineering from Laval University (1973), a master’s degree in mineral engineering from the University of Minnesota (1974) and a doctor of engineering degree from the University of Missouri-Rolla (1979).

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Robert M. Friedland (b. 1950) – 2016 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

Robert M. Friedland
Robert M. Friedland

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Robert Friedland has been a dynamic, transformative force in the Canadian and international mining industries for more than 25 years. The entrepreneur, financier and company-maker is one of the most recognized mining personalities and achievers in the world.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

With his leadership, executives and companies affiliated with his Ivanhoe Capital Corp. have raised more than US$10 billion on world capital markets to advance natural resource exploration and development projects and leading-edge exploration and communications technologies in more than 30 nations.

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J. Keith Brimacombe (1943–1997) – 2016 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

J. Keith Brimacombe
J. Keith Brimacombe

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Major advances in metallurgical engineering and metals processing can be traced to the intellectual prowess of a few giants, and Keith Brimacombe is unquestionably one of them. As a researcher, he pioneered the application of computerized mathematical modelling to analyze and design processes to extract metals from their ores and convert them into useful products. His efforts led to metallurgical processes and processing advancements that helped the materials industry lower costs, make new products and improve productivity and quality control.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Brimacombe was a strong advocate of cooperation between universities and industry, and his vision helped make Canada a leader in value-added metals processing. As an educator and lecturer, he inspired a generation of professionals who embraced the materials revolution, and managed the technological change that sustained it.

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Stewart L. Blusson (b. 1938) – 2016 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

Stewart L. Blusson
Stewart L. Blusson

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Few events in mining history have generated as much excitement or public attention as the Lac de Gras diamond discoveries in Canada’s North during the early 1990s. Stewart (Stu) Blusson was an intellectual catalyst for this transformative event, which led to the development of Ekati, Canada’s first diamond mine, and other significant discoveries.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Along with fellow Canadian Mining Hall of Fame inductees Charles Fipke and Hugo Dummett, Blusson advanced the science of diamond exploration and laid the foundation for Canada to become the world’s third-largest producer (by value) of high-quality diamonds. Blusson also contributed to science and society as one of the most generous and farsighted philanthropists in Canadian history.

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Mackenzie Iles Watson (Born 1935) – 2015 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Geological acumen, entrepreneurial instincts, and an engaging personality are some of the qualities that contributed to the extraordinary success achieved by Mackenzie Watson during his 50-year career in the Canadian mining industry. His impressive track record of discovery includes involvement in the Holloway gold project in Ontario, chromite deposits in the Ring of Fire district, and the Strange Lake rare earths project in Quebec. He also built flagship Freewest Resources into a respected project generator and provided leadership and support to junior companies and industry associations.

Watson graduated with a BSc in geology from the University of New Brunswick in 1959, and soon after participated in the discovery of the Icon Sullivan copper mine near Chibougamau, Quebec. His 1970s successes included Lynx Canada’s Long Lake zinc mine in southeast Ontario, the Hebecourt massive sulphide deposit in Quebec, and the Ellison gold deposit in Quebec, and a thermal coal deposit in New Brunswick. He later became a technical advisor to Q-Vest, which raised $60 million to invest in junior companies during the 1980s.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Watson came into his own after becoming president of Freewest Resources in 1986. The company’s first major triumph was the Holloway gold project east of Timmins. Its discovery led to Freewest being absorbed by Hemlo Gold Mines and development of the deposit as a 1,350-tons-per-day mine.

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Ian Telfer (Born 1946) – 2015 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Ian Telfer earned his reputation as a financially astute and visionary mining entrepreneur by building a series of companies through timely acquisitions and value-driven mergers.

The companies that he founded or led — TVX Gold, Wheaton River (later merged with Goldcorp), Silver Wheaton, Terrane Minerals and Uranium One, among others — reached a combined market capitalization of more than $50 billion at their peak. Telfer’s greatest accomplishment began modestly in 2001, when he saw low gold prices as an opportunity to acquire Wheaton River Minerals and leverage its treasury to buy producing gold mines at bargain prices.

The strategy was so successful that Wheaton River was soon able to execute a friendly merger with established miner Goldcorp. With Telfer at the helm, Goldcorp grew through subsequent mergers and acquisitions to become a world-class gold mining company.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Born in Oxford, England, Telfer was raised in Canada, and holds a BA from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the University of Ottawa. He worked as an accountant for Hudson’s Bay Mining and Smelting before becoming a founding partner of TVX in 1983. Telfer’s talents came to industry attention as TXV grew into a global gold-miner from an initial base in Brazil.

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Ronald K. Netolitzky (Born 1943) – 2015 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Ronald Netolitzky is an accomplished Canadian geologist who has always remained an independent-minded prospector at heart. He recognized and helped realize the potential of the Snip and Eskay Creek properties in northwest British Columbia, which became two of Canada’s most successful, high-grade precious metal mines. He also contributed to the growth of many junior companies and, at last count, was involved in 12 significant merger-and-acquisition events.

Netolitzky graduated from the University of Alberta with a B.Sc. in geology in 1964 and a M.Sc. from University of Calgary in 1967. He joined the Saskatchewan uranium rush as a consultant before venturing into junior mining. By 1985, Netolitzky was president of Delaware Resources and seeking a project of merit.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

The Snip property optioned from Cominco fit the bill and the first drill program led to a gold discovery. But the 1987 market crash hindered financing and Delaware was ultimately taken over by Murray Pezim and re-named Prime Resources. Undaunted, Netolitzky turned his attention to a nearby prospect with a fruitless exploration history dating back to the 1930s.

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Peter M.D. Bradshaw (Born 1938) – 2015 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Peter Bradshaw has served the mining industry with distinction for more than forty years as a mine-finder, company builder, an advocate of collaborative research and science and by working effectively with local and indigenous people. His early career with renowned Barringer Research gave him a global perspective on mineral exploration and the opportunity to develop and publish details of ground-breaking geochemical processes and exploration methods.

In 1979, he joined Placer Development, a predecessor of Placer Dome, and helped advance several successful projects, most notably the discovery of the very high-grade zone VII at Porgera in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Bradshaw was also the driving force behind the formation of the very successful Minerals Deposit Research Unit (MDRU) at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Among his other achievements Bradshaw brought expertise, integrity and energy to the junior sector, first with Orvana Minerals, which developed the Don Mario gold-silver-copper deposit in Bolivia. Later, as co-founder and president of First Point Minerals, he helped discover and identify the commercial importance of a new type of nickel deposit in BC and Yukon, in which nickel occurs as the nickel-iron alloy, awaruite.

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Pioneering Manitoba woman to enter Mining Hall of Fame – by Chris Purdy (Canadian Press/Global – January 15, 2014)

http://globalnews.ca/toronto/

Kate Rice was so brilliant she could have done anything, and her family was so wealthy she could have done nothing at all.

The adventurous, tough-as-nails beauty from southern Ontario set out for the rugged Manitoba wilderness 100 years ago with a shotgun and snowshoes in search of treasure.

She never struck it rich, but she did discover the first nickel deposits in the province and made headlines across the continent as Canada’s first “girl” prospector.

“Living in the middle of nowhere, depending solely on yourself … I know how hard it is to work in a man’s world,” says Toronto businesswoman Linda Rice, 60, who recently found the mining legend’s name on a branch of her family tree.

She says she can’t even imagine what life would have been like for such a woman a century ago. “I was gobsmacked … I was very excited that I was related to such a pioneer.”

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David S. Robertson (Born 1924) – 2014 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

David Robertson became a respected statesman of Canada’s mining industry through technical accomplishment and impeccable integrity displayed during a distinguished career spanning more than six decades. Along with other industry giants, he earned his stripes in the mid-1950s for his role in the discovery of uranium deposits at Elliott Lake, Ontario. In 1965, he founded David S. Robertson & Associates, a consulting firm that grew in stature as it expanded from its Canadian base to other countries.

Robertson’s career took on a new dimension in the mid-1970s, after he was retained by the Saskatchewan government to evaluate potash assets for a newly formed Crown corporation. He earned a reputation for credible valuations and as an expert witness in litigation and arbitration cases. His expertise was in demand after his firm merged with Coopers & Lybrand Consulting Group in 1982, and for decades beyond.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

Born in Winnipeg, Robertson graduated with a BSc degree in physical chemistry and geology from the University of Manitoba in 1946.

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Kathleen C. S. Rice (1882-1963) – 2014 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Kathleen Creighton Starr Rice left the comforts and confines of Edwardian-era Ontario for the wilderness of northern Manitoba, where she found fame as a prospector and mining entrepreneur. Aided by local First Nations, her travels by dog team and canoe through Manitoba and Saskatchewan included an 800 kilometre trek north of The Pas to Reindeer Lake, where she discovered zinc and vanadium in 1914. After moving to the Snow Lake area, she staked gold claims along strike of the Rex, Kiski and Bingo gold mines.

http://www.pendaproductions.com/ This video was produced by PENDA Productions, a full service production company specializing in Corporate Communications with a focus on Corporate Responsibility.

In the early 1920s, she staked the first nickel properties in Manitoba, which ultimately lured Inco (now Vale) to Manitoba. In those days, her high-grade discovery was valued at $5 million. Her intellectual curiosity was wide ranging, and covered topics as diverse as a scientific paper on the Aurora Borealis and plans for hydro-generation at Wekusko Falls.

She was a journalist, an innovative dog trainer, a horticulturalist and a pioneer environmentalist with a deep appreciation of First Nations culture and knowledge.

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