Although born in Australia, Phillip Mackey is known worldwide as one of Canada’s most prominent metallurgists in the field of non-ferrous extractive metallurgy. He is one of the few Canadians to have advanced the development of not one but two significant copper smelting technologies that have benefited copper metallurgical plants around the world.
The greatest discoveries are transformative, and Brian Meikle is one of only a few modern-era geologists who achieved this pinnacle of success.
Few modern-era exploration geologists have made the transition to company builder and mine developer as successfully as Terry MacGibbon. He applied the expertise and experience gained over a 30-year career with nickel giant Inco to build four substantial mining companies: FNX Mining, Torex Gold Resources, TMAC Resources and INV Metals.
Donald McLeod was a revered and iconic figure in Canada’s mining industry and an inspirational role model for young mining entrepreneurs. Born and raised in Stewart, BC, 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.
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.
Viola MacMillan had two careers in the Canadian mining industry. First, over a period that spanned four decades, she and her husband teamed up as prospectors and developers of several substantial mineral deposits across the country.
Minefinders get the glory, but it is the minebuilders who get the ore. For 65 years, while others discovered and financed the deposits, John Maclsaac applied his energies to breaking the first rock, sinking the first shafts and preparing the mines for their first production.
James McCrea was instrumental in building Dome Mines into one of the giants of the Canadian mining industry. He was responsible for acquiring and developing Dome’s Sigma mine in northwestern Quebec in the early 1930s, which has been producing gold for 56 years, and the Campbell Red Lake gold mine, one of Canada’s premier gold producers and also still in production.
An imaginative exploration philosophy, sound academic approach and the resolute perseverance of a risk taker - these were the qualities that made Charles E. Michener a major factor in the success of Inco Ltd.‘s mine-finding endeavours during the middle decades of this century.
In the fall of 1926, a memorial tablet was unveiled at Cobalt, dedicated to Willet Green Miller, “provincial geologist of Ontario, who gave to Cobalt its name and place among the great mining camps of the world; who read the secret of the rocks and opened the portal for the outpouring of their wonderful riches”.
