H. Douglas Hume, founder and chairman of Toronto-based Nuinsco Resources, has died. He was 82.
Hume founded Nuinsco with geologist George Archibald, a life-long friend and business partner.
The two met in 1965, when Archibald was working for Falconbridge in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., and Hume was the director of a junior mining company active in the area. They struck up a business relationship a few years later, and began looking about for a shell company to serve as a base of operations. Their search led them to Insco Mines, a subsidiary of a Montreal-based construction company in receivership. They pulled together the financing, purchased the company, and renamed it New Insco Mines. Eventually the company would become Nuinsco Resources, and its first discovery was the massive sulphide copper deposit in Hebecourt Twp., Que., which was brought into production in the 1970s. Other discoveries include the Cameron Lake gold deposit in northern Ontario and the Rainy River gold and nickel-copper prospects in northwestern Ontario.
“In everything [Hume] did, he got deeply involved,” says Archibald. “He was not a geologist, but he knew as much as a lot of trained geologists.”
Hume was a member of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), over which he presided from 1983 to 1985. During his tenure, he led efforts to bring about a better tax and regulatory environment for prospectors and junior exploration companies. He became an honourary life member of the PDAC in 1991.
During the Second World War, Hume served as an artillery officer in the Italian campaign.
He is survived by his wife, Idelhia, and daughters Charlotte, Cathy and Barbara, as well as four grandchildren.
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