The list of mines in which Mervyn Arthur Upham played a significant role developing is considerable - 22 in Canada alone, several more internationally.
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.
Joseph Errington embodied the spirit of mining prior to the Second World War as the country pulled itself out of the depths of the Depression in the 1930s and mining became a prime force in creating a prosperous and bustling postwar Canada.
The Kerr Addison mine near Virginiatown, Ontario ranks among the top gold mines in Canada, producing at its peak more than half a million ounces of gold every year. No one deserves more credit for turning the mine into the enormously successful venture it became than William S. Row.
John Kostuik exemplified the rough and ready ways of the hard-rock miner. A mining engineer, he cut his teeth by somehow managing to eke out of profits for what was in the late 1930s the lowest-grade mine in Canada. Howey Gold Mines, in fact, proved to be a training ground for low-cost mining methods.
Archibald Bell contributed to the development of several mines during the course of an illustrious career that epitomizes the progress made by the mining industry this century. He is best known for his role in the discovery of the Copper and Needle Mountain orebodies of Gaspe Copper which, at 67 million tons averaging 1.3% copper, could be termed an “elephant” discovery.
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.
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.
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.
Walter Curlook was a man of vision who helped shape the world’s largest nickel producer. Throughout his lengthy career with Inco, he was responsible for fostering new technologies and products, new working environments and a new era of government and public relations.
