Rio’s Chilean team to collect prospecting award

There may not be room enough at the podium for this year’s four winners of the Bill Dennis Award for Prospector of the Year. The Rio Algom exploration team of John McClintlock, Michael Thicke, Sigfried Weidner and Angus Campbell will all be cited for having discovered the Spence copper deposit in Chile.

The deposit is currently under development, and Rio estimates that by 2002 it will be yielding 136,000 tonnes of copper per year at less than US50 cents per lb. Preliminary resources stand at 305 million tonnes grading 1.1% copper.

The quartet will receive its trophy at the annual awards banquet of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada on March 15 at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto.

Also in line for hardware are Pierre Lassonde and Seymour Schulich, president and chairman, respectively, of Euro-Nevada Mining and Franco-Nevada Mining, who will receive the Viola MacMillan Developers Award for having developed those companies into internationally competitive gold producers.

This year’s Distinguished Service Award goes to Edward Thompson. In addition to being a past president of the PDAC, Thompson acted as chairman of the 1986 Ontario Advisory Committee on Junior Resource Financing and the Competitive Position of Ontario.

The PDAC will also issue three Special Achievement Awards:

• prospector Roy Martin

  will be recognized for his lifelong service to the industry, including his role in discovering the Dogpaw Lake property in Ontario and participating in a grubstake that led to the discovery of the Granny Smith mine in Australia;

• prospector Ross Toms will be honoured for his successful career, which includes the discovery of billions of tonnes of iron ore near Ungava Bay in Quebec; and
• consulting firm Watts Griffis & McOuat will be recognized for its work around the world.

The PDAC’s Environment Award will be issued jointly to Timginn Prospecting Alliance and Henry Brehaut. Timginn is being recognized for its environmentally responsible drilling programs in Timmins, Ont., whereas Brehaut, former vice-president of the environment for Placer Dome, is being honoured for having promoted issues of sustainable development.