From the discovery of the famous Kirkland Lake Break that hosted seven producing gold mines, to the launch of The Globe and Mail newspaper, William Wright has played an important role in Canadian business history. The Wright Hargreaves mine was one of the largest in the Kirkland Lake camp, turning out almost five million ounces of gold, and its profits were used to build a major mining company with interests across Canada.
Recognized as the leader of a group of five men who invested their energies and resources in founding first the LaRose silver mine in Cobalt and later the Hollinger gold mine in Timmins, Noah Timmins is unquestionably a founding father of this country’s mining industry.
A pioneer of Canada’s mining and metallurgy industry, Lloyd Pidgeon is best known for the development of the process for the production of high purity magnesium. The process, which bares his name, remains to this day unrivalled in the production of the world’s highest purity magnesium metal.
Paul Penna was a successful mine maker and the builder of a substantial corporation destined to thrive long into the future. As chairman and president of Agnico Eagle Mines, he brought his company from small beginnings to senior status.
Along with many other prospectors of his generation, Edmund Horne came to northern Ontario at the turn of the century with hopes of finding his pot of gold. Success was elusive, but rather than give up, Horne decided to venture across the border into Quebec, based on his belief that good geology did not stop at the Ontario border.
Although best known as one of Canada’s prominent mine financiers and developers, Donald Hogarth’s career includes a long list of achievements in politics, wartime military service, and other business interests.
Joseph Hirshhorn came to Canada in 1933, drawn by opportunities in gold mining. He was an unabashed promoter and entrepreneur who announced his arrival with a full page advertisement in The Northern Miner, entitled “My Name is Opportunity and I Am Paging Canada.”
For almost three decades the 1970s, 1980s and until his death in 1995 Robert Hallbauer was recognized by industry, government and labor as a giant in terms of his presence and influence over the mining industry in British Columbia.
