Northern Miner – Mining Person of the Year Award – Page 2

TNM’s 2013 Mining Persons of the Year: Fission’s Ross McElroy and Dev Randhawa – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – December 23, 2013)

December 24, 2013

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. Editor John Cumming MSc (Geol) is one of the country’s most well respected mining journalists. jcumming@northernminer.com

Since the days of the Manhattan project, there have been three conventional rules for finding uranium mineralization in Saskatchewan: it occurs in the Athabasca basin, usually in the lowest sandstone unit that’s in contact with the basement rock; the best place to look is in the eastern part of the basin; and the shallow stuff has all been found, so you need to go deeper into the basin to find more.

Well, the new Patterson Lake South ultra-high-grade uranium discovery by joint-venture partners Fission Uranium (TSXV: FCU; US-OTC: FCUUF) and Alpha Minerals turns all that conventional wisdom on its head: the deposit is 8 km outside the southwestern edge of the basin in a relatively unexplored area, and it lies almost at surface, covered only by glacial overburden and a shallow lake.

And for this, we are awarding our 2013 “Mining Persons of the Year” to Fission president and COO Ross McElroy, the technical point man on the discovery, and Fission chairman and CEO Dev Randhawa, who has ably guided the company through not one, but two major corporate overhauls in a single year.

Ross McElroy is a veteran geologist with an uncanny ability to place himself at the heart of the discovery of high-grade Canadian mineral deposits.

The Northern Miner’s 2012 Mining Person of the Year: Garofalo a steady hand on the Hudbay tiller – by John Cumming (Northern Miner – December 19, 2012)

December 19, 2012

In these times of economic and political turmoil, boring has become the new exciting.

With mining companies of all stripes running aground on the shoals of cost overruns, nationalization movements and environmental opposition, any executive that manages to guide a company to fiscal health, sustainable growth and positive community relations stands head and shoulders above his peers. And so this year, Hudbay Minerals president and CEO David Garofalo is our Mining Person of the Year for his fine job in making Hudbay a standout success story amid the dwindling list of mid-tier base metal miners.

Garofalo is a accountant by training, with a B.Comm. from the University of Toronto and a Chartered Accountant designation. He started out in 1990 as treasurer of Inmet Mining before joining Agnico-Eagle Mines in 1998 and becoming CFO in 1999. That was back when it only had one gold mine — the pre-expansion LaRonde in Quebec’s Abitibi region — and penny pinching was the order of the day, as gold traded for just US$250 per oz.

Garofalo helped Agnico nail down financings that allowed the company to grow prudently through mine expansions and asset purchases, without having to hedge production in a rising gold environment. In 2009, a year in which Agnico raised about a billion dollars, Garofalo won the award for “Canada’s CFO of the Year,” an honour that’s usually handed out to CFOs from much larger and more established Canadian companies.

John Zigarlick Jr. – The Northern Miner 1984 “Mining Man of the Year” – by Patrick Whiteway

December 28, 2011

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

Working at the leading edge of gold mine development in North America is Echo Bay Mines of Edmonton under the quiet, confident leadership of President John Zigarlick Jr. – our choice for Mining Man-of-the-Year.

While some goldmines struggle under the pressures of falling gold prices, Echo Bay is one of the companies always looking ahead, using new ideas to explore for and mine low-grade oxidized deposits of the southwestern U.S. and the high-grade sulphide deposits in the Canadian far north.

Born in Winnipeg and raised in the northern mining town of Uranium City, Saskatchewan, Mr. Zigarlick is no stranger to the north where the majority of Echo Bay’s interests lie. His knowledge of the north and the ability of people to work there was, no doubt, the source of his confidence in opening up the far north to mining activities previously thought to be either impossible or virtually uneconomic to even attempt.

The Northern Miner 2011 “Mining Person of the Year” Ross Beaty – by John Cumming (December 22, 2011)

December 22, 2011

Walter Gretzky famously advised his son Wayne to “skate where the puck’s going, not where it’s been.” In the mining industry today, there’s no better exemplar of someone living that kind of wisdom than entrepreneur Ross Beaty, our selection as 2011’s Northern Miner Person of the Year.

Based in Vancouver, Beaty has been a driving force behind many wildly successful mineral explorers and junior mining companies over almost four decades, and has already been well-rewarded and recognized for his efforts. Over the last 25 years he has started 12 public companies and sold eight of them, converting about $1 billion of investment capital into shareholder wealth of more than $5 billion.

But 2011 was framed by two particularly sweet periods for Beaty: in January there was full fruition of the long-predicted blossoming of the silver market and the benefits created for silver miner Pan American Silver, which was carefully created and nurtured by Beaty in the nineties during the nadir of the silver market (and where he still serves as chairman); and, in the closing months of 2011, the almost too-easy grassroots exploration success at Lumina Copper’s large and growing Taca Taca copper-gold-molybdenum deposit in Argentina – the last major unsold asset left from the bundle of large copper deposits that Beaty and his team gathered under one corporate roof in 2003, similarly during a period of low copper prices.

The Northern Miner 2010 “Mining Persons of the Year” Shawn Ryan and Cathy Wood Renew Yukon Gold Rush – by Gwen Preston (December 16, 2010)

December 27, 2010

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. This article is reproduced with permission of The Northern Miner and was first posted on their website on December 16, 2010.

Fourteen years ago Shawn Ryan and Cathy Wood were tromping around British Columbia, picking wild mushrooms. They loved the lifestyle, in large part because of its gold rush-style mentality: “You’d have a thousand people in the bush and half of them would migrate, overnight, on a rumour of a sweet spot,” says Ryan.

But the couple were expecting their first child. Ryan tried to make the line of work more stable by convincing the Yukon government to endorse mushroom picking as an agricultural program, but was turned down. Devastated, he turned back to an old skill – staking mineral claims in Ontario – and he made $10,000 in a week.

“So I said to Cathy, ‘Let’s go back into exploration,'” Ryan recalls. They decided to focus on the Yukon.

Ten years later, the couple optioned a piece of ground in the Dawson Range to Underworld Resources. Two years after that, Kinross Gold swept in and bought Underworld for $138 million. The deal triggered a staking rush around the White Gold gold project that is still going strong.

Ryan and Wood are most famous for the Underworld discovery but their prospecting efforts and successes in the Yukon go far beyond one deal.

The Northern Miner 2009 “Mining Persons of the Year” Osisko Mining’s Sean Roosen, John Burzynski and Robert Wares – by TNM Editorial

May 12, 2010April 8, 2010

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

The Northern Miner’s Mining Persons of the Year for 2009 are Osisko Mining’s president and CEO Sean Roosen, vice-president of corporate development John Burzynski, and executive vice-president and chief operating officer Robert Wares.

These three are most responsible for taking Osisko in five short years from just another junior with ho-hum assets trading at 13¢ to a polished, $2.8-billion company on the verge of opening a large, long-life gold mine in one of the world’s best mining jurisdictions.

Osisko’s flagship is its Canadian Malartic project in the town of Malartic, some 20 km west of Val d’Or, Que., where in-pit resources now exceed 10 million oz. gold.

Over those five years, Osisko’s management, led by Roosen, Burzynski and Wares, has time and again showed its ability to seize opportunities and solve problems with creativity, spirit and aplomb — and turning many early shareholders into millionaires along the way.

The Northern Miner 1984 “Mining Man of the Year” John Zigarlick Jr. – by Patrick Whiteway

January 12, 2009

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE: Republic Of Mining Chronicles Canadian Mining History -by Stan Sudol*

May 16, 2010January 12, 2009

This column was posted today on the Canadian Mining Journal digital update.

The Web has forever changed the way we search for information. In today’s digitized world, most journalists, policy analysts, political leaders and the general public – especially students – turn to the Internet as their first source for facts.

Two major drawbacks to Internet searches seem to be the lack of content that is over a decade old because no one has bothered to post it or information that is deeply embedded in corporate websites. Blog postings, on the other hand, generally show up on Google searches much more readily.

In the final week of December, the annual Mining Person of the Year Award given by The Northern Miner is eagerly awaited by the industry. Since the first award was given in 1977, I was very surprised that I could not find much information about previous winners when I searched the Internet.

After contacting The Northern Miner about my concerns, publisher Doug Donnelly graciously allowed the RepublicOfMining.com to post all the previous Mining Person of the Year winners.

I have created a separate file in my blog’s index site located on the left hand side of the screen called “Northern Miner – Mining Person of the Year Award,” for easy access. Or just Google “Mining Person/Man of the Year” and the address will pop up at the top of the page.

The Northern Miner 1982 “Mining Person of the Year” Clifford Frame and Robert Hallbauer

January 11, 2009

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

While most of the plans for mega projects conceived during the past ten years in Canada lie collecting dust on a shelf somewhere, victims of an economy that refuses to colvalesee and a government that wants too much, one such project continues on. While it has by no means received its fair share of the fanfare enjoyed by the other, now-stillborn projects, the $2.5 billion coal development in Northeastern British Columbia is nearing completion after more than a decade of planning and intense negotiation.

And more than anyone else, two men are responsible for the success. We refer to Clifford H. Frame of Denison Mines and Robert E. Hallbauer of Teck Corp., who in a collective effort managed to secure long-term sales contracts overseas and in turn convince the government of the level support required in the huge infrastructure needed to move the coal to tidewater.

These are men who were able to see beyond the current maladies of the world economy and provide Canada with thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in future exchange revenue, not to mention bringing greater diversification to their companies at a time when most businesses are content stagnate.

While any major resource development can be a success only through the hard work of dozens of individuals, there are only a few around with enough courage to put their careers and reputations on the line by backing an expensive and often risky project, and with enough tenacity and insight to follow the project through to a successful conclusion.

The Northern Miner 1987 “Mining Person of the Year” Clifford Hugh Frame

January 11, 2009

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

People of the Yukon are used to putting out fires. Forest fires race through its countryside every summer and miners are often called on to help extinguish them.

In 1970 one such fire swept through Faro, a small mining town built a year earlier in the Pelly River Valley. It burned down half the town before being brought under control.

That town was built by Cyprus Anvil Mining Corp., a company controlled by Dome Petroleum of Calgary, to house some 720 employees of the big 15,000-ton-per-day open-pit lead-zinc mine nearby.

When zinc price took a tumble in ’82, Dome’s debt problems forced Cyprus Anvil to walk away from the mine. That move set off a series of fiery operational problems that would take a skilled mine operator years to put out: entire 170-ton haulage trucks loaded with ore were abandoned undumped, on the haulage ways; the mill was simply turned off, clogging pipelines and filling sumps; there was even 1 ½ ft of water in the mine’s warehouse and a couple of hundred feet of it in the huge pit three years after being abandoned.

This, it turns out, was a perfect situation for a 49-year-old mining engineer who thrives on tackling challenges – Clifford Hugh Frame, our 11th annual Mining Man of the Year. He assembled a group of 454 employees who have successfully extinguished those operational fires. Now they are fine-tuning the big operation.

The Northern Miner 1983 “Mining Man of the Year” C. Henry Brehaut – by Allan Jones

January 11, 2009January 11, 2009

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

The fact that 45-year old C. Henry Brehaut, new president of Dome Mines chose to do laboring jobs underground following graduation as a mining engineer, was somehow characteristic of the enthusiasm and drive that years later would make him the man most responsible for bring into production Canada’s newest and biggest gold mine.

This new mine, of course, is Detour Lake in Northeastern Ontario, which under Mr. Brehaut’s over-all guidance and direction as vice-president operations for the Dome Group, was brought on stream a full two months ahead of schedule and $8 million below the $139 million budgeted for that huge and very impressive project. This is precisely why we have chosen him our MINING MAN OF THE YEAR.

For partners Campbell Red Lake Mines, the operator and of which Mr. Brehaut is also the new president, and Amoco Canada Petroleum Co., the Detour Mine is expected to turn out 100,000 oz. gold per year for the next two to three years, rising to 200,000 oz. per year by 1988. Ore reserves currently stand at 30.6 million tons, grading 0.113 oz. gold to a depth of 1,800 ft., but Mr. Brehaut is confident this figure could double in future years, with the greatest additional reserve potential coming from continuation of the orebody at depth.

The Northern Miner 1979 “Mining Man of the Year” Norman B. Keevil Jr.

January 10, 2009January 10, 2009

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

The past decade has not been easy for Canada’s mining community. While many of the biggest and the best were forced to retrench in the face of soft markets, tight money and tough government restrictions, new mines were few and far between.

Throughout these tough times, however, one company consistently has bucked slow-growth trend. Over the last five years, Teck Corp, the brainchild of veteran geologist Norman Keevil has brought not one but three new mines to fruition (1975: Newfoundland Zinc: 1976: Niobec niobium and 1978: the Afton copper-gold mine and smelter).

The company will kick off the coming decade with the start up of yet another large project – it’s Highmont copper-molybdenum mine in B.C. Three more Canadian development proposals (B.C.’s Bullmoose coking coal deposit and its Schaft Creek copper-molybdenum-gold property along with Ontario’s Montcalm nickel-copper deposit) are waiting in the wings.

Teck’s oil and gas operations are expanding most recently with the $30.8 million purchase of 25% of Coseka Resources. The company also has spread its wings internationally, benefiting from its partnership with Frankfurt- based Metallgesellschaft AG, which owns just under 20% of Teck.

Spearheading this wave of expansion is executive vice-president Norman B. Keevil Jr., a credit to his father’s ambitions and The Northern Miner’s MAN OF THE YEAR.

The Northern Miner 1980 “Mining Man of the Year” Donald E. G. Schmitt – by M.R. Brown

January 9, 2009

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

He knows gold, believes in it and did something about it – especially for Pamour Porcupine Mines (which he heads) and for the entire Timmins-Porcupine district. It is, in part, for this reason that we have chosen Noranda’s senior vice-president – mines. Donald E. G. Schmitt as our Man-of-the-Year.

But his contributions to the mining industry are being felt far beyond the confines of the rejuvenated Timmins camp and include education, mine safety and C.I.M. work.

A dedicated mining engineer who has won his spurs as a hardrock miner, he has played a key role in building up and strengthening Noranda’s far flung mining empire to its present world status.

“He had provided solid leadership for our organization,” says Noranda’s chairman and president, Alfred Powis.

“He basically loves mining, has spent a lifetime at it, and has done one hell of a job at it,” was the panegyric comment of William James, Noranda’s executive vice-president and president of Kerr Addison Mines and long-time business associate.

The Northern Miner 1985 “Mining Person of the Year” Paul Penna – by M.R. Brown

January 9, 2009

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

The past year has been a dismal one for the Canadian mining industry. Metal prices have remained soft even for gold. Earnings generally are going to down. And so are dividends.

But not for Agnico-Eagle Mines, a company that is fast developing into one of this country’s top ranking gold producers. Its grade, output and earnings are away up and costs way down. And there are dramatic ore developments taking place on its Telbel property. Too, it has just raised its dividend payout.

Behind this success story is an ex-mine promoter turned a top mining executive – Paul Penna, our Mining Man of the Year.

It’s always difficult to single out particular individual from an industry as broad and diversified as mining, for different people have different criteria. But in this case we feel would have come up with the same choice either on the basis of the company’s performance or that or that of the man himself. Both make Cinderella stories.

The Northern Miner 1996 “Mining Man of the Year” David Walsh and John Felderhof – by Vivian Danielson

January 9, 2009January 7, 2009

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

The following year, it was discovered that the Bre-X core samples had been salted (falsified) and the company’s stratospheric share prices became worthless. Bre-X is infamously known as the most elaborate and biggest mining scandal of all time. To this day, no one has ever been held accountable.

David Walsh died in 1998 of an apparent stroke claiming his innocence until the end. John Felderhof was cleared of illegal insider trading in July, 2007.

The Busang gold deposit in Kalimantan, Indonesia, is known around the world as one of the most important gold discoveries of the century. A few years ago however, it was a small prospect being explored in a remote region by a little-known junior from Calgary, Alta., Bre-X minerals (BXM-T).

The Busang story came to the mining forefront earlier this year when the company’s Southeast zone discovery was described as having the potential of “30 million ounces plus, plus, plus”. This find, however, was not the result of overnight success. Rather, the discovery was the culmination of years of hard work and teamwork between two Canadian – David Walsh, an entrepreneur and financier, and John Felderhof, a geologist and mine-finder.

While Busang became the mining story of 1996, it is a tale that may not have materialized without the single-minded dedication of the Walsh-Felderhof partnership. On a shoe-string budget and with little encouragement or interest from majors, the men were exploring in Indonesia long before it was fashionable.

The industry was skeptical of the venture, at least in the early days, and the region’s geological puzzle was as difficult to put together as the funds for exploration.