Barrick’s Davidson honoured for long, long career

In the late 1970s, Alex Davidson, then a student at McGill University, was attending the annual PDAC convention in Toronto when he stuck his head inside the Canadian room at the Royal York Hotel to catch a glimpse of the awards banquet. “What a bunch of old fogies,” he said to a colleague at the time. At this year’s convention, he joined the ranks of the “old” in the Canadian room when he was presented with the Bill Dennis Prospector of the Year Award, which honours the memory of Dennis, who served as PDAC President in 1965-66.

“This is the highlight of my career,” said Davidson, now the senior vice-president of exploration with Barrick Gold. He was honoured for his body of exploration work, and especially that which resulted in the discovery of the 7.3-million-oz. Alto Chicama gold deposit in Peru.

“[Alto Chicama] was about having the right people in the right place,” said Davidson, giving careful mention to Ramon Araneda and Raul Guerra, geologists and fellow members of his Peruvian exploration teams.

After graduating from McGill University with a master’s degree in economic geology in 1977, he spent his early career in Canada’s northwest where he explored for tungsten deposits in the Yukon and uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin. His exploration successes in Canada include the Winston Lake zinc-copper deposit north of Schreiber in Ontario and the Samatosum silver-lead-zinc deposit in B.C. He also headed the first exploration programs on what would become the McArthur River uranium deposit in Saskatchewan.

Davidson joined American Barrick Resources in 1993 and headed up the company’s exploration efforts, including its expansion into Latin America. Some of Barrick’s noteworthy grassroots gold projects during this period include the Pascua Lama gold-silver project in Chile, Pierina in Peru, and Bulyanhulu in Tanzania.

The PDAC’s Developer’s Award honours the memory of Viola MacMillan who was president of the association from 1944 to 1964. This year’s winner was BHP Billiton Diamonds, for its work at the Ekati diamond mine.

Ekati, which is Canada’s first diamond mine, lies 200 km south of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories.

Forty-two per cent of the mine’s workforce are northern natives, and 19% of the Northwest Territories’ GDP comes directly from the mine.

“This award certainly makes us feel good about what we did,” said Jim Excell, president and chief operating officer of BHP Billiton Diamonds.

Excell also mentioned the contributions of prospectors Charles Fipke and Stuart Blusson. Excell dedicated the award to Hugo Dummett, who played a key role in the development of Ekati. Dummett died in a car accident in September of last year.

The Distinguished Service Award went to Stuart Averill the owner, president and principal geologist of Nepean, Ont.-based Overburden Drilling Management, a company he established in 1974. The founding of the company coincided with the emergence of heavy mineral geochemistry as an important investigative tool for finding deposits buried beneath overburden. Counted among ODM’s exploration successes are the Collins Bay ‘B’ uranium mine in Saskatchewan, the Casa Berardi gold mine in Quebec, and several smaller gold deposits.

The second Distinguished Service Award was presented to Avard Hudgins, a veteran prospector of more than 40 years in the Maritimes.

In Nova Scotia, three mines owe their beginnings to the geological principles applied by Hudgins: the Lake Enon celestite mine on Cape Breton Island; the Gays River lead-zinc mine in central Nova Scotia: and the East Kemptville tin-copper-zinc mine in Yarmouth. In New Brunswick, he recognized the gold potential of major Appalachian structures and initiated projects that resulted in significant discoveries, including the Elmtree gold deposit and California Lake Silver prospect. He is also a contributor to the Odds ‘N’ Sods column in The Northern Miner.

The PDAC’s Environmental Award was presented to Falconbridge for its various initiatives and commitment to sustainable development. Company projects include a water-recycling program at the Raglan mine in northern Quebec. Last year, it conserved about 140,000 square metres of fresh water, a 20% reduction from 2001. Falco also continues to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Sudbury smelter emits about 30,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide annually. This is 70% less than the current allowable limit in Ontario.

This year the PDAC elected to present a Special Achievement Award to Owen White, an unsung hero who for 12 years has volunteered for the Canadian arm of the Association of Geoscientists for International Development. AGID Canada runs a project that collects donated geoscience books and journals and distributes them to universities and government institutions in developing countries.

White and his wife, Elizabeth, use the storage facilities of Canadian Feed the Children to store, sort, and catalogue the 50 tonnes of material that have been donated. The current catalogue contains more than 1,600 titles and many series of technical journals.