The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame has offered congratulations to its five newest inductees for 2022.
With the addition of Phillip John Mackey, F. Dale Corman, Maureen Jensen, Robert Quartermain and Peter Risby, the hall has a new total of 200 honored.
About the Inductees
F. Dale Corman (b. 1937) was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, and earned a BSc (Geology) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York in 1961. His early successes in the 1970s include the high-grade Sturgeon Lake base metal mine in Ontario, the Lake George antimony mine in New Brunswick and the Cullaton Lake gold mine in Nunavut.
In subsequent decades he led several Vancouver-based juniors, notably Western Copper and related entity Western Silver. He was a tenacious champion of large copper and copper-gold projects, including the Carmacks and Casino deposits in Yukon, which were both advanced to feasibility. The highlight of his career was the discovery and development of the world-class San Nicolas deposit and the Penasquito mine in central Mexico.
Penasquito ultimately became Mexico’s largest gold mine and second largest silver mine and an important asset for current operator Newmont. Corman served as president of seven public companies and director of 25 listed companies and was involved in the development of seven mines and mineral deposits in Canada, and other parts of the world.
Maureen C. Jensen (b. 1956) was born in Winnipeg and grew up in mining towns, learned the values of hard work and self-reliance and saved to attend the University of Toronto, where she earned a BSc in geology in 1979. She is best known as the first female to head the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), where she championed policies to improve investor protection and encourage diversity for executives and directors of public companies.
Before joining the OSC, Jensen served as SVP, surveillance and compliance at IIROC and president at Market Regulation Services. She also held senior positions at the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), including director of mining services during the aftermath of the Bre-X scandal. She was a TSX member of the Mining Standards Task Force that laid the groundwork for National Instrument 43-101, which became a globally recognized disclosure standard for mining projects.
Jensen’s previous 20-year career in mining enabled her to take a pragmatic science-based approach to solving industry and regulatory challenges. As a longstanding champion of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) she introduced policies for disclosure of gender diversity on boards and is chair of the Prosperity Project created to help women stay in the workforce during and after the COVID-19 crisis.
Jensen’s contributions to industry causes and associations were purposeful and far-reaching. She played a leadership role in strengthening industry associations, notably the PDAC and CIM. Jensen has received broad public and industry recognition for her many achievements, including induction to the Investment Industry Hall of Fame (2020), The
Toronto Life’s 50 most influential people in 2013 and 2014, PDAC’s Distinguished Service Award (2008), CIM’s Robert Elver Mineral Economics (2004) and CIM’s Distinguished Lecturer Award (2000).
Phillip John Mackey (b. 1941), while born in Australia, 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.
He co-developed the Noranda Reactor Process and co-invented the Noranda Converting Process, which has produced more than 4 million tonnes of copper since the late 1990s and remains the world’s third most productive copper converting technology. In addition to these and other technical achievements, Mackey expanded industry knowledge as a prolific author of technical papers, renowned lecturer, and inspirational mentor of young metallurgists. He was involved with other initiatives during his career with Noranda (and related entities such as Falconbridge and Xstrata), including new developments for processing lateritic nickel deposits and concluding technology agreements with other nations, notably Chile.
Mackey mentored a new generation of metallurgists as a professor at Laurentian University in Sudbury, and as a special lecturer at McGill University in Montreal. He also was an honorary professor at Northeastern University in Shenyang, China.
He is a strong supporter of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM) and is a past president of the Metallurgical Society (METSOC). The Phillip Mackey Symposium was held in his honour at the 2019 Copper Conference in Vancouver.
Robert Quartermain (b. 1955)’s career path encompasses several distinct phases of success, starting with a pivotal role in the discovery of Ontario’s Hemlo gold camp in the early 1980s. He began his career as a geologist for Teck and gained rare and valuable experience at Hemlo and other mines.
He ventured on his own to form Pretium Resources, based on an unshakeable belief that its high-grade Brucejack prospect in northern BC had the makings of a mine. His faith was validated when Brucejack became Canada’s fourth largest gold mine with annual production of 350,000 ounces.
From a geological concept to Canada’s fourth largest gold mine in a decade is a testament to his skills as a geoscientist and company builder. Quartermain is a longstanding advocate for Indigenous involvement in the resource industry and a generous philanthropist with a focus on education, social justice and wildlife habitat preservation.
His social conscience has deep roots from his childhood in St. Stephens, New Brunswick. He learned leadership skills as a young RCAF Air Cadet and in 2019 was appointed an Honorary Colonel in the RCAF for his support of the Canadian Armed Forces. Quartermain graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a BSc (Honours, Geology) in 1977, and later donated $1million to its Earth Sciences Department (now the Quartermain Earth Science Center), providing funding for research and six geoscience scholarships.
Quartermain has received many awards over the years, notably MABC’s Mining Person of the Year (2017), CIM’s A.O. Dufresne Award (2016) and Vale Inco Medal (2010), PDAC’s Bill Dennis Award (2013), AME BC’s Murray Pezim Award (2009) and an Honorary DSc from UNB (2009).
Peter Risby (1931-2011) or “Pete” began prospecting in 1957, initially for syndicates, and later on his own with Indigenous partners. His early finds include the Risby-Tungsten property in Yukon and the Lee property in the Northwest Territories (NWT). The Lee project was the foundation for his involvement with Welcome North Mines and subsequent discovery of more than 80 projects optioned to major companies.
Risby’s life story is equally inspiring. He was a tenacious entrepreneur who overcame adversity to become a successful prospector and miner in Northern Canada. He was born in Kansas in 1931, to a Black railway porter and a German nursing student who fled to Canada to avoid persecution by the KKK.
The family settled in a Cree community in Alberta, where they were welcomed. Here, Risby learned vital bush navigation and survival skills. Risby was forced to attend a residential school but escaped at age seven and never returned.
He was a keen learner who developed an uncanny photographic memory and applied these skills to navigate life. He began prospecting in Yukon, and sold his first claims to Johns Manville Co., then the world’s largest asbestos producer. In 1981, Risby began exploring the placer potential of the Indian River Valley near Dawson City. He went on to develop and operate the Indian River mine, which became a leading gold producer and a major contributor to Yukon’s economy.
Due to his upbringing among the Alberta Cree, Risby was an advocate for inclusion in the industry. He spent several years teaching prospecting and mineral identification courses to Indigenous students and was one of the first to hire women for exploration programs.
He was inducted into the Yukon Prospectors Hall of Fame and named Mr. Miner in 1996, for his technical achievements, economic contributions and as a trail-blazing advocate of diversity and Indigenous inclusion in Canada’s minerals industry.
The CMHF, which was established in 1989, recognizes and celebrates individuals who have demonstrated outstanding lifetime achievements to the benefit of the Canadian mining industry.
All five new members of the CMHF will be formally inducted at a gala dinner and ceremony to be held Aug. 18, 2022, at the Palais Royale Ballroom in Toronto, Canada.
Source: Canadian Mining Hall of Fame