Viola MacMillan to donate $1.25 for Pinch collection

Viola MacMillan said she took three weeks to make up her mind after being approached by board of trustees who are attempting to raise $5 million needed to buy the famous collection.

Assembled by New York mineralogist William Pinch, the 16,000- piece collection has been moved from the basement of Pinch’s home in Rochester, N.Y., to the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Ottawa where it will be put on display.

MacMillan, who lives in semi- retirement at one of her Bradford, Ont., farms, said she was asked to make a donation by Teck Corp. Chairman Norman Keevil.

“I have been in mining since 1927. I love the industry and I am happy to do something that is worthwhile for mining,” she told The Northern Miner.

By contributing to the fundraising drive, the former president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada has joined a list of private sector donors who are now just $200,000 short of their target figure.

In a bid to bring one of the world’s finest mineral collections back to Canada, companies like Teck Corp., Inco Ltd. and Noranda Inc. have already contributed substantial amounts to the fundraising drive which was started two years ago by a Montreal doctor.

“I am just happy to be able to donate a few dollars,” said MacMillan who is still actively involved in mining. This summer, she will oversee a drilling program on a gold prospect near Timmins, Ont. She has also started work on her memoirs.

“There are things that I have got to get straightened out,” MacMillan said, “but I feel lucky to be still alive.”

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