A. Lew Parres, a Manitoba-based prospector who helped develop several of the province’s significant mineral discoveries, including in the Nor-Acme gold mine, has died. He was 89.
Parres began prospecting with his father, Christopher, in 1929 and, at 14, panned a gossan on the family’s claims near Snow Lake, Man. The property was eventually developed into the Nor-Acme gold mine, with the aid of his brother James, father, and some others. Parres served as secretary of Nor-Acme Gold Mines from 1938 to 1958, then as president until 1988.
Upon graduation from the University of Saskatchewan with a bachelor’s degree in geology in 1938, he spent four years as an underground miner, shift boss, and geologist at Falconbridge’s Coniaurum base metals mine in Schumacher, Ont. In 1939, he married his wife, Billie.
Following service with the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War, he worked as a geologist with Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting, near Flin Flon, Man.
He later staked 473 claims in the Lynn Lake area while serving as a consulting geologist for several companies, including one led by the Guggenheim brothers of New York, N.Y. It was during this time that Parres discovered the Sherlynn base metals deposit, near Lynn Lake.
Over the next 20 years, he helped develop the Choiceland iron deposit in Saskatchewan and discovered the Western Nuclear mine at Hanson Lake, Sask. Subsequent discoveries were a large columbium deposit, near Moosonee, Ont., and the Pinebay orebody, near Flin Flon.
For 18 years, Parres was president of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Prospectors & Developers Association. In 1988, he was named Prospector of the Year by the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada, of which he was a long-time director.
He is survived by his son James and daughters Beverley and Brenda.
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