Gilbert A. LaBine (1890 – 1977)

Gilbert LaBine helped shape the course of world history when in 1930 he discovered pitchblende at Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories. With his discovery there of the ore that yields radium and uranium, LaBine pushed Canada into the atomic age. He was probably one of the few Canadian prospectors of that time who could have identified the pitchblende mineral.

Share
Franc R. Joubin (1911 – 1997)

Like another great Canadian mine-finder, Gilbert LaBine (now, too, enshrined in the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame), Franc R. Joubin also made his name and enduring reputation, in uranium. For it was Joubin who found the vast Blind River area uranium field in northern Ontario, today the site of the major operations of uranium miners Denison Mines and Rio Algom at Elliot Lake.

Share
H. H. “Spud” Huestis (1907 – 1979)

The claim to Canadian mining immortality for Herman H. “Spud” Huestis came with his introduction to the world of the large tonnage, low-cost Highland Valley copper deposits in British Columbia, several hundred miles northeast of Vancouver.

Share
Frederick M. Connell (1883 – 1980)

Frederick M. Connell The citation accompanying the 1973 Inco Medal award to Frederick M. Connell, probably said it all: “In recognition of the leading part he has played as a mine-finder and mine-maker, placing his name in the foremost rank of those whose names and accomplishments will always be associated with laying broad and firm foundations to one of Canada’s greatest industries.”

Share
Alex Mosher (1900 – 1993)

Since the turn of the century, the mining prospector has been a romantic figure in Canadian folklore. Justifiably so, because it has usually been the prospector who has triggered the metamorphosis of idle wilderness ground into a wealth-producing production centre providing the necessities of life for many in the mining community and opportunity on a far-reaching scale, to industrial operations across Canada.

Share
Eldon Leslie Brown (1900 – 1998)

Mining on Canada’s northern frontier poses a particular set of challenges and few mining men had more successful experience with them than Eldon Leslie Brown. The operations he managed during his career - Sherritt, God’s Lake, Sachigo River, Lynn Lake - all had their Beginnings in remote, northern areas supplied and developed by tractor trains on winter roads and the bush pilots who appeared after World War I.

Share
John Ross Bradfield (1899 – 1983)

So diverse were the achievements of John Bradfield that he can well be characterized as a coach who built a winning team capable of excellent performance on more than one type of playing field.

Share
Selwyn Gwillym Blaylock (1879 – 1945)

Selwyn G. Blaylock devoted a working lifetime to mines and minerals and left a number of monuments to his effectiveness including: A successful Canadian mining and metallurgical enterprise, Consolidated Mining & Smelting Co. of Canada, moving upward in this organization from assayer in 1899 to president and managing director in 1939.

Share
Hector Authier (1881 – 1971)

In a life span of 89 years, Hector Authier drank deeply from the cup of Canadian life and enriched his country in the process. All Abitibi was his cause and Val d’Or one of the effects.

Share
Norman Bell Keevil (1910 – 1989)

To win acclaim in one lifetime either as a prospector, a scientist, a mine maker or a corporate builder is no small achievement; each occupation requires a high degree of talent, competence and energy. These three qualities Norman Keevil possessed and employed in abundance as indicated by the act that he achieved preeminence in all four endeavors.

Share