William S. (Steve) Vaughan helped elevate the stature of Canada’s mining industry at home and abroad as a leading expert and advisor on natural resource law, project finance and mineral policy matters for more than 40 years.

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.

The initiative of Jack Hammell to harness the potential of the airplane opened the floodgates to mineral exploration in Canada’s north. It was Hammell’s ambition to “crack open the north,” and he did that through his pioneering use of aircraft to move men and materials to areas previously accessible only by dogsled in winter or canoe in summer.

Arthur White was an active mine financier who, with his partner, raised millions of dollars for more than 50 companies and was instrumental in developing several mines including two of the most prolific producers in Ontario’s Red Lake gold camp - the Campbell mine and its neighbour, which bears his name, the Arthur W. White mine.

Sir William Logan founded the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) in 1842 and served as its first director for 27 years. The first Canadian scientific organization, the GSC has since made a major contribution to the country’s economic growth.

A.O. Dufresne, born April 10, 1890, devoted his 45-year professional career to Quebec’s department of mines. He molded it into an efficient support system for mineral exploration and mine development that has assisted in exploiting the province’s mineral riches in an orderly fashion.