Since the years immediately following the Second World War, and particularly since 1954 when Dr Keevil discovered the very rich copper deposit at Temagami, Ont., and created what would become Teck Corp., he cut a swath through the industry, leaving a mark that will last for decades.
He was probably best known for the creation of Teck, but his most far-reaching influence on the industry was his philosophy. While other major mining companies were sometimes content to reside in their Bay Street office towers, Teck never lost faith in the ability of the junior mining company to take the risks necessary to make the mining industry go. It gained a reputation of being able to work with the junior companies, not merely swallow them up. As lawyers and administrators grew in number — as they do in any corporation that grows — Teck never forgot that its business was finding and mining mineral deposits. Teck itself has grown into one of the world’s major mining companies, but that spirit of taking the risks to realize the rewards and of working with the sometimes boisterous junior companies continues. Indeed it has served as a model for others who now realize the value in fostering that entrepreneurial spirit.
As an academic or as an industrialist, Dr Keevil never gave up his desire to push back the frontiers, to meet another challenge. He will be missed by family and friends, and in the mining industry he will be long remembered for that inability to surrender to complacency.
But probably his crowning achievement has yet to come to fruition, for from the bold and gutsy acquisition of the mighty Cominco comes the prized Red Dog deposit in Alaska, destined to be the world’s largest zinc mine.
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