OBITUARY — Franc Joubin

Francis Joubin, who helped usher Canada into the nuclear age, has died. He was 85.

Born in San Francisco, Calif., in 1911, Joubin obtained his undergraduate and master’s degrees in geology from the University of British Columbia in 1936 and 1942, respectively.

His career in the mining industry began in the summer of 1934 when, as a student, he worked at the Pioneer gold mine in British Columbia. Upon receiving his undergraduate degree, he began working for the Geological Survey of Canada and, later, as a prospector and geologist for Pioneer in Zeballos, B.C.

Joubin moved to Toronto in 1946, where he served as Pioneer’s eastern representative, only to leave the company in 1949 to form a private consulting firm.

During this period, he worked for Technical Mine Consultants, a company created by Toronto-based promoter Joseph Hirshhorn. In 1952, Joubin became that company’s general manager and helped develop the Rix uranium mine in the Beaverlodge district of Saskatchewan. That same year, he formed a partnership with Hirshhorn so as to develop more uranium mines.

Joubin explored the north shore of Lake Superior and, not long afterwards, discovered uranium near Blind River, Ont. A prospect he tested in 1953 became the Pronto deposit, which led to a secret staking and drilling operation that covered more than 56,000 acres.

By the mid-1950s, Technical Mine Consultants had developed eight mines in the region, which gave rise to the town of Elliot Lake. The same group was responsible for copper, gold, iron and perlite projects in Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.

He later sold his interests in those mines and returned to private consulting, travelling to Africa, Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia and Spain in search of more mines, before returning to Canada in 1958. That same year, he bought and merged the Bralorne and Pioneer operations in British Columbia.

In the early 1960s, Joubin joined the United Nations Technical Assistance Agency to collect geological data throughout the world. By 1964, he had explored a dozen countries in the Caribbean and Central and South America. In 1965, he accepted a post as a senior adviser in the mineral section of the Agency. However, health problems forced him to resign, and he spent the next 15 years as a consultant to the U.N., assessing the mineral potential of such countries as Israel, Senegal, the U.S.S.R., Nepal, Afghanistan, India, Burma and Madagascar. Over a period of 18 years, he explored 70 countries.

Joubin was a member of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, and he received the Order of Canada in 1983. His other honors included the Leonard Medal from the Engineering Institute of Canada, the Blaylock Medal from the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy & Petroleum (CIM), and the Derry Medal from the Geological Association of Canada (GAC).

Joubin was a member of such professional organizations as the CIM, the GAC, the American Institute of Mining &

Metallurgical Engineers, and the Association of Professional Engineers in both British Columbia and Ontario.

He is survived by daughter Marion and grandchildren David and Marea.