Industry legend George Buchanan Cross, who covered Canada’s junior mining sector for five decades through the authoritative George Cross News Letter, passed away on Nov. 18 at the age of 91. A Vancouver native, Cross left a permanent mark on mining journalism in the pre-internet era.
Cross’s father, George Carmichael Cross, launched the George Cross News Letter on Apr. 7, 1947.
Born in 1932, the younger Cross entered the family business in 1952, rising to publisher by 1966. As its lead writer and researcher, he embodied the newsletter’s commitment to “reliable reporting,” focusing on the junior mining sector’s activities and discoveries, as reported on the Vancouver Stock Exchange.
His newsletter became an indispensable source of mining news, contributing to the development of real-time access to reliable information about Canadian mining activities worldwide.
The newsletter tracked mining and exploration companies, publishing 13,388 issues before Cross retired in 2000. It often broke mining news before anyone else, like the 1980s Hemlo gold discovery in Ontario.
Mark O’Dea, founder and executive chair at Oxygen Capital, remembers Cross as “cut from the cloth of a different era,” and someone whose blunt honesty steered towards truth and usefulness.
“George told you what he thought,” O’Dea told The Northern Miner by email. “You were either good with that, or you weren’t. I liked that about him.”
Cross was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2007, attesting to his profound impact on the industry. However, his legacy was not solely built on his professional acumen but also on his personal touch—his strength of character, candid advice, and ability to show up when it mattered most. Whether it was with a bag of chocolates, a set of seed potatoes, or his century-old Christmas fruit cake recipe, Cross’s actions reflected a deeply held belief in the power of community and tradition, O’Dea said.
Cross was known to be generous and thoughtful. His monthly breakfasts at a favourite restaurant he referred to as “the Dungeon” became a hub for sharing his encyclopedic knowledge and connecting people, O’Dea fondly recalls.
He also hand-delivered his newsletter, a practice mining veteran Bruce McLeod recalled on the social media platform X, noting that required him to critique his press releases before dawn.
Cross’s formal education included studies at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Commerce.
His friends and business associates remember Cross as not only the name behind a newsletter but also as a man who lived his life with vigour and purpose. He cherished his family and enjoyed skiing, gardening, and the company of good scotch with friends. The philosophy drove his professional and personal travels, “Travel more to learn more, to earn more, to travel better, to learn faster,” according to the family obituary published in the National Post on Dec. 2.
Several people paid respects online following a post by industry entrepreneur Tommy Humphreys.
RIP. The George Cross Newsletter was how I first read the news releases of the TSX-V junior miners and explorers. 1-2 weeks after the fact… and we were still some of the first to read them!
— MasterMetals (@MasterMetals) November 21, 2023
The mining community reveres him as much for his support and mentorship as for his journalistic integrity. X user Riley Gould, an investment advisor with Haywood Securitues, recalls the time George gifted him the book ‘No guts no glory’ before they headed out for a summer of field work in the Yukon. Besides encapsulating Cross’ ethos, “he insisted it was the perfect book to pair with time in the bush… He wasn’t wrong.”
A great man. 10 years ago he gave me a hardcover copy of “No guts no glory” before I headed to work a summer in the Yukon. He insisted it was the perfect book to pair with time in the bush….he wasn’t wrong.
— goodasgould (@rileywgould) November 22, 2023
Cross leaves behind his children Patti, Susan, George, and Paul Duchart, and six grandchildren.
Cross donated his newsletter archive to the UBC so it’s accessible for future generations.
His parting advice to all is, “Learn the value of compound interest.”
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