ODDS’N’SODS — David Osborne: Master builder without equal

The landscape of western Canada and the Territories is dotted with a good many sturdy, well-constructed plants and buildings. A goodly number of them are the products of a master builder — David Osborne.

I first met Dave in the early 1960s, when we developed the Canada Tungsten mine and plant in the MacKenzie Mountain area of the southwestern section of the Northwest Territories. Our program included 200 miles of access road, an air-strip, a 300-ton mill, plant site and town site, as well as an open-pit mine situated one mile from the mill on the mountainside beside Flat River.

We had to deal with numerous problems, chief of which was a tight budget. Our objective was to test a premium tungsten product for an international market controlled by an Asian cartel. It was a “horse-and-buggy” affair, with a Cadillac market in the offing, provided we could achieve our objectives.

Our motto at Canada Tungsten was that we were a “do-it-yourself business” — which proved true enough, until we reached a wall we could not scale. In consequence, we selected an efficient and well-known contractor, Joe Klassen, to work with us. He had built numerous plants in British Columbia and the Yukon, and was widely known as a “tight operator.”

Joe designed and purchased the key items for the program, and, by the time early spring arrived, all the supplies and materials were on site. At this stage, he announced he was assigning an experienced “grassroots” builder to the project, namely one David Osborne. Quiet and unassuming in demeanor, Dave kept his mind focused solely on the task at hand.

Soon, he had assembled a first-rate crew, and the infrastructure — camp, roads, power-house, mill, crusher, shops, cookery, bunkhouses, townsite houses and water-supply — began to take shape, and within a budget that bordered on the parsimonious. The directors of Canada Tungsten, including Thayer Lindsley, were astounded at the progress that had been made within the expenditure constraints. To cut a long story short, Joe and Dave accomplished an amazing construction feat under extremely difficult circumstances, enabling the company to compete within the world markets.

When next I encountered Dave, at the Granduc mine in 1970, the circumstances were even more stringent. He was in charge of the underground construction in the main operational theatre, in the heart of Granduc Mountain at the end of 10 miles of tunnel. Dave operated with a far-ranging crew that were scattered along the surface, overlooking the South Leduc Glacier where the extensive ventilation input was situated, and down through the mountain. Another group was completing the underground crusher, ore-storage silos and load-out chutes, and yet another was constructing the main repair shops. Other projects included the main compressor room and power plant, an extensive ore-collection system above the crusher, and the 10-mile tunnel network at the mine terminal.

When I arrived, David had almost a thousand workers active inside Granduc Mountain. In spite of some daunting logistical obstacles, Dave remained cool, calm and collected, and completely in control of his schedule and cost programs. He had an ability to reach compromises quickly and intelligently, or, if required, proceed with unyielding and firm judgments.

There have been, and still are, a great many superior construction managers in Canada’s mining industry, but I shall always remember Dave Osborne as a master-builder without equal. It was indeed a rare privilege to work with him.

— The author, a retired mining engineer and regular contributor, resides in Vancouver, B.C.