Canadian Mining Hall of Fame inducts Harquail, Lindsay, McLeod-Seltzer, Morrison

For Franco-Nevada (TSX, NYSE: FNV) co-founder and board chair, David Harquail, his life in mining has taken him almost everywhere, even to discuss gold with a communist dictator.

Harquail recalled a trip to Havana with Franco-Nevada co-founder and fellow Hall of Fame member Pierre Lassonde in the 1990s. The pair met with Fidel Castro to talk about a gold project and decided to gift Castro a company gold pen, unaware the CIA had tried to kill him with a poison pen in the 1960s.

“And out jumped the security officers for Castro,” Harquail recounted. “They whisked him out of the room, they manhandled us, took the pen, tore it apart, the spring [jumped] out. And the big lesson here is do your homework before a meeting!”

As CEO of Franco-Nevada from 2007 until 2020, Harquail steered the royalty company into its initial public offering and raised $1.2 billion, still the largest mining IPO in Canadian history. Franco-Nevada would eventually grow its market capitalization to more than $50 billion.

The achievements of his passion are why he was celebrated on Jan. 8 for his induction into The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. Vision, discipline, strategy and guts were all qualities honoured at the ceremony in the Toronto Convention Centre where ESG leader Don Lindsay, entrepreneur-trailblazer Catherine McLeod-Seltzer and people-focused explorer Gordon Morrison were also celebrated.

Industry safety

Harquail’s interest started early, and he was visiting mining camps in northern Ontario and Nunavut as a kid. Once he turned a family vacation to Machu Picchu in Peru into a side-trip to a copper mine. His contributions to Canadian mining have outlived the Cold War, and today the industry is regarded as positive and nation-building, he said.

“It’s the best of times to be a Canadian miner, and I’m very proud to be part of it.”

Mining veteran Don Lindsay remembers his first industry job with the Iron Ore Company of Canada and the short orientation he was given the night before he started.

“I was a foreman in the pit with 25 steelworker union guys reporting to me, at 21 years old,” he said in a video shown to the audience. “I don’t know which way’s up! On night shift, I would try and operate every single [piece of] equipment: grader, a dozer, a drill, a shovel. You could never do that today, incredibly unsafe, but I wanted to know and understand what they were doing.”

That rugged introduction would set the tone for his later career when he prioritized safety, a focus that served him well in his tenure as president and CEO of Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A, TECK.B; NYSE: TECK) from 2005 until 2022.

On his watch, Teck’s market capitalization grew from $8 billion when he started to $22 billion when he stepped down. Its copper reserves expanded from 2.5 million tonnes to 19 million and almost $9 billion was returned to shareholders.

ESG forerunner

Big numbers and achievements aside, Lindsay knows that business success should enhance the world and people rather than come at its expense.

His leadership helped kickstart Teck’s partnership with Unicef to address zinc deficiency in children, a problem that can cause death from diarrhea. The Zinc Alliance for Child Health program has reached more than 140 million people around the world. Lindsay saw the program up close in Kenya at a nursing station.

“There were 10 mothers and their children whose lives had been saved,” he said in a video. “I get choked up thinking about it. No one else was there to see. But it was so moving. It was so powerful knowing Teck made a difference.”

Whether it’s industry success or outreach to the world, Lindsay stressed that it comes down to having the tenacity to pursue dreams.

“I told geologists…they should come to my office and jump up and down on my desk, leave footprints and insist that we fund them,” he told the audience. “Some called it the ‘footprints on the desk speech.’ While we didn’t find many elephants, we did find one QB2.”

Teck’s Quebrada Blanca stage two expansion mine in Chile is one of the world’s largest copper producers with output of more than 300,000 tonnes a year.

“Dreams do come true, but only if you have the guts to pursue them.”

Pathfinder for women

Catherine McLeod-Seltzer’s industry ambition seems to be always buzzing, no matter the circumstances.

When she was three months pregnant, she teamed up with geologist David Lowell to try and secure a copper asset in Peru. The day after McLeod-Seltzer gave birth, Lowell called her when she was in the hospital to tell her they had acquired it.

“I remember thinking, ‘Well, a new baby and a copper project. It’s going to be quite a year!’” she told the audience.

That project became Toromocho, one of the largest copper mines in the world, and McLeod-Seltzer and Lowell eventually sold it to Minera Chinalco Peru for $840 million. The duo also discovered the huge Pierina gold deposit in Peru and sold the company to Barrick Mining (TSX: ABX; NYSE: B) in 1996 for $1.1 billion.

“We built a dream on a shoestring budget,” she said. “I’ll never forget thinking when the deal was done that this is what happens when you work with the right people.”

M&A

The founder of several exploration and mining firms, McLeod-Seltzer has raised more than $750 million in exploration capital and been behind more than $4 billion made in the building and selling of companies.

Her induction into the hall of fame marks the first time in its history that a father and daughter have both received the accolade. Her mining pioneer father Don was inducted in 2017.

She’s also a role model for women in an industry that’s still largely male-dominated. Her accolades include being named one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network, Mining Person of the Year by The Northern Miner in 1999 and one of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining.

McLeod-Seltzer has made her mark with responsible mining as well, particularly with a program in Peru focused on improving wool yields and hygiene among alpaca herders who work high up in the Andes mountains.

The inclusion of veterinarians, nutrition initiatives and medicines helped encourage more handwashing among children, who help their mothers with herding. Respiratory illnesses, which is the main fatality for infants in the highlands, were sharply reduced.

People first

David Morrison’s acceptance speech embodied much of the reason why he was honoured because he thanked others for their positive contributions to his career more than he told stories about himself.

“In any challenging endeavour, help can come from many sources but the people around you are key to that successful outcome,” he said. “That was the wisdom imparted to me by my father, who saw the strength in good people.”

David Morrison’s people-centric focus is key to his success in exploration and negotiations. Credit: Morgan Hotston

An exploration geologist whose innovative use of technology led to numerous discoveries in Ontario’s Sudbury basin, Morrison’s leadership led to 17 major metal finds, many with Inco and FNX Mining. Nine of those discoveries advanced into full production and three into partial development, representing billions of pounds of nickel and copper, and millions of ounces of platinum, palladium and gold.

The total value of those finds would be worth more than $70 billion at today’s prices.

Respect

“Respect and trust is really important,” he said. “Always try to respect other people’s point of view, and if you do that, they will trust you.”

It’s an approach that’s much needed when working with people from different cultures and it proved essential in Morrison’s work with TMAC Resources at the Hope Bay gold project in Nunavut. It was later acquired by Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX, NYSE: AEM).

He helped negotiate a 20-year agreement with Inuit landowners, crafting out the contours of Indigenous partnerships and consultations.

“The years at Hope Bay in the Arctic were very special, and I owe a debt of gratitude and a big thank you to the Inuit people for their friendship and their wisdom,” he said.

In his closing remarks to the audience, Morrison said he had a simple message for the mining industry. “Next time a new discovery is made and people are slapping themselves on the back saying, ‘Wow, we sure picked the right horse!’ Just remember that you guys, you are that horse, and without you, there is no horsepower.”