Robert (Bob) Gannicott was a pioneer of Arctic mineral exploration and a visionary entrepreneur who helped unlock the downstream value of Canada’s fledgling diamond industry.
John Zigarlick, Jr. was a visionary mine-maker and company-builder who left an enduring legacy in Canada’s North through innovative infrastructure development and the formation of progressive Aboriginal business partnerships.
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.
Along with many other prospectors of his generation, Edmund Horne came to northern Ontario at the turn of the century with hopes of finding his pot of gold. Success was elusive, but rather than give up, Horne decided to venture across the border into Quebec, based on his belief that good geology did not stop at the Ontario border.
Although best known as one of Canada’s prominent mine financiers and developers, Donald Hogarth’s career includes a long list of achievements in politics, wartime military service, and other business interests.
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.
A rare combination of geologist and entrepreneur, Jack McBean turned small, struggling companies into winners. He contributed to the success of the Upper Canada, Upper Beaver and Macassa/Tegren gold mines in Ontario’s Kirkland Lake region.
Marsh Cooper is best known as the driving force in the acquisition and development of many of the deposits and mines that transformed Falconbridge into a global nickel giant. He guided the company through one of its strongest periods of growth, brought new mines into production and, during the 1970s, oversaw the completion of Falconbridge Dominica’s ferronickel plant in the Dominican Republic.
When Alexander Dadson began exploring the Yellowknife region in the early 1940s, he saw potential beyond the small, high-grade gold showings known to exist since 1898.
Michael J. Knuckey’s induction into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame recognizes his leadership role in the discovery or development of at least 10 mineral deposits, of which two are truly world class. Of these deposits, eight have become mines.
