Joseph Tyrrell has been variously described as the doyen of Canadian mining men, the dean of mining, the man who conquered the Canadian North, Canada’s senior geologist, and the last of the great breed of mapmaking explorers and first of the modern mineralfinders and technologists.

An enquiring mind, skill as a field geologist and the desire to find orebodies led Walter Holyk to make an outstanding contribution to the understanding of the genesis of volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits.