To hear Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention chair Joe Hamilton tell it, you’d think that Viola R. MacMillan Developer’s Award winner Terry MacGibbon was an awful golfer. When really he was only working on his masterstroke —
The long-time
Three years ago and just four years after he took over management of the company, Terry orchestrated an option agreement with Inco. Under the agreement, FNX and joint-venture partner Dynatec would conduct exploration programs on five past-producing properties in the Sudbury region.
For MacGibbon, the Sudbury area was familiar territory. A professional geologist, he began his career as an Inco mine geologist in the basin. He continued to climb the corporate ladder throughout his 30 years with Inco, eventually retiring as director of worldwide exploration. Over the previous three years, FNX has conducted one of the most aggressive exploration programs in North America on its Sudbury properties.
FNX is now forging ahead with three feasibility studies and plans to put additional deposits back into production in each of the next three years.
Under MacGibbon’s management, FNX has grown from a company with one employee, a market capitalization of less than $10 million and a treasury of $300,000 to a company with a market cap of over $250 million, no debt, a treasury of roughly $60 million with some 50 direct and 300 indirect employees. MacGibbon was the only award recipient to receive a standing ovation at the annual awards ceremony during the March convention. About one-quarter of the room stood when he took the podium.
MacGibbon thanked long-time Inco geologist Gordon Morrison, who MacGibbon specifically requested when he made the deal with the nickel titan.
“There is a lot of heavy lifting when you start a junior mining company,” said MacGibbon. “It’s nice when you have people to help share the load.”
It was a good night for FNX. Michelle DeWolfe, a doctoral student at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., and winner of the first Mary-Claire Ward Geoscience award earlier in the evening, once worked for the junior. “Mrs. DeWolfe worked eight months for FNX, we’re sweeping the awards,” joked MacGibbon.
The Developer’s Award honours the memory of Viola R. MacMillan who was president of the PDAC from 1944 to 1964. The award is given to a person who has demonstrated leadership in management and financing for the exploration and development of mineral resources. This year, the PDAC chose to present two such awards. The other winner was
Bema Gold has grown from a junior exploration company to mid-size gold producer in less than two decades. From its inception 17 years ago, Bema, under the management of Clive Johnson, has brought into its fold assets spanning three continents, including three producing gold mines and two projects under development. The producers include the Julietta gold-silver mine in the Magadan region in Far East Russia, the Petrex mine in South Africa and the Refugio open-pit gold mine in Chile, which was recently reopened.
Bema is also developing the promising Kupol gold-silver project in the Chukotka region of Far East Russia and the Cerro Casale gold project in Chile.
Bema is worth about $1.4 billion and expects to be producing roughly 1 million oz. gold annually by 2008.
“I would like to thank Placer Dome for the wine tonight but I’d like you to take it easy because I’m trying to get them to back the US$1.5 billion Cerro Casale project,” quipped Johnson, as he accepted the award. He thanked his family and gave a nod to the company’s more than 75,000 shareholders. “With six children headed for college and university, I’m the highly motivated CEO. I’m sure our shareholders are grateful for their existence.”
The Thayer Lindsley International Discovery Award, named after one of Canada’s great mine finders, recognizes an individual or a team of explorationists credited with a recent significant mineral discovery anywhere in the world.
This year, the winners of the award are members of
Cortez Hills was found near the end of 2002 during exploration drilling near the Cortez mine in Nevada. Cortez Hills, along with Placer’s nearby Pediment deposit, promises to extend the life of the Cortez mine to at least 2014.
Exploration of the region consisted of reconnaissance-level mapping and sampling, geophysical and geochemical data collection, and two- and three-dimensional modelling. The team then refined its exploration activity to determine the geology of the district and developed a model of the stratigraphy. A 7-hole drill program was planned and it was the sixth hole that proved to be the winner.
Placer’s exploration team has found five new discoveries over 11 years in the Cortez area, resulting in roughly 31 million oz. gold at a discovery cost of less than US$5 per oz.
Cortez Exploration and Development Superintendent Bob Hays and Tim Thompson, chief geologist of Placer Dome’s Bald Mountain mine, accepted the award on behalf of the Cortez team.
“Without the support of the joint-venture partners (Kennecott Minerals), this discovery would not have been possible,” said Hays.
The PDAC selected the Sudbury exploration team of
The key players in the Sudbury exploration team were Manager Mike Welch, Regional Geologist Scott McLean, Geophysicist Kevin Stevens, and Project Geologist Kristan Straub, who was part of the project’s diamond drilling program.
Fourteen years ago, the company concluded that opportunities for large, near-surface discoveries in Sudbury were few. In 2000-2001, Falco launched a new strategic plan for Sudbury that would see the company focus on small- to medium-sized deposits containing higher-grade mineralization in the hope that these could be economic. Under the new plan, the team returned to investigate old drill holes using advanced borehole geophysical technology and modelling. The technology allowed the team to probe deeper into the surrounding rock and, ultimately, make the discovery. With a current inferred resource of 13.7 million tonnes grading 1.7% nickel, 3.6% copper, 0.8 gram per tonne gold, and 2.2 grams PGEs, Nickel Rim South will help sustain Falconbridge and is remarkable given the 120-year history of the camp. Welch, McLean, Stevens and Straub all accepted the award.
“You’re only as good as the team around you,” said Welch, sharing the spotlight. “These guys deserve a lot of the credit.”
The E3 Environmental Excellence in Exploration Award is presented annually to a company or individual demonstrating outstanding initiative, leadership and accomplishment in protecting and preserving the natural environment during an exploration program or operation of a mine. This year, the PDAC presented two awards in the category. The first winner was Diavik Diamond Mines.
Diavik Diamond Mines is the manager of the Diavik diamond mine and holds a 60% interest in the project. Aber Diamond holds the rem
ainder.
Diavik took extraordinary steps to protect the natural surroundings during the development and operation of its namesake diamond mine in the Northwest Territories. The company is also being honoured for the steps it has taken to enable neighbouring communities to participate in the substantial benefits that the mine is creating.
Diavik is situated on a 20 sq. km island in Lac de Gras, about 300 km northeast of Yellowknife. Its four orebodies are all located underwater, just offshore. Because of this, Diavik had to build dikes to allow open-pit and underground mining.
The mine began production in January 2003 and has an estimated mine life of 16-22 years. Common visitors are grizzly bears, wolves, caribou, foxes and wolverines. Protection of these wildlife and the fish and waters of Lac de Gras is key to Diavik’s environmental management program. As part of the program, wildlife is given the right of way on all haul roads, and the caribou are monitored with the assistance of elders from local aboriginal communities.
Fish habitat is being carefully preserved. Indeed, work has already begun on creating new fish habitat within the dikes that contain the mine operation.
And all water used in the mining operation is treated at the company’s water collection and treatment facility before it is released into the lake. At the end of the mine’s life, the entire diked area will be returned to Lac de Gras as viable fish habitat.
Diavik has also gone to great lengths to set up a good and lasting rapport with neighbouring communities, beginning early during exploration. As the project evolved, Diavik committed to providing significant training, employment, and business opportunities to residents of the Northwest Territories and the West Kitikmeot region of Nunavut.
Most of these commitments have been met and even exceeded. In 2003 over 70% of the work force were northern residents, and aboriginal workers comprised close to the targeted 40% of the company’s work force. Diavik is also employing local contractors, of which the majority are aboriginal.
Diavik Geology Manager Sean Whiteford accepted the award.
The other E3 Award winner was Beth Clemson, who helped launch Environmental Excellence in Exploration.
In 1999, she was employed as a manager of special projects with Battle Mountain Gold. She and a group of mining, exploration, and environmental professionals from 11 mining companies had formed the Ad Hoc Committee for Environmental Excellence in Exploration. The group’s objective was to encourage care and stewardship of the environment during the exploration stage of a project.
The goal was to compile the most current information on good environmental practices during exploration. The group agreed that the information, originally conceived as a manual of good practices, would best be communicated if it were published by an industry association with global reach. Clemson’s subsequent work with the PDAC laid the foundation for what was to become one of the association’s most ambitious projects. Today E3 is being used in over 40 countries by over 800 registered users.
The PDAC’s Distinguished Service Award recognizes and honours a person who has made important contributions to mineral exploration and mining development or has given loyal service to the association. Once again, there were two winners.
The first recipient was Donald Anderson for his dedicated service to prospecting and exploration and for his many voluntary contributions to the industry.
Anderson’s career has taken him into exploration camps and down mines in northern Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Manitoba. In his academic career, covering 22 years, he taught courses on remote sensing, mining geology, and mineral exploration at the University of Manitoba.
He worked in geophysics at the Geological Survey of Canada, and in 1980 served with the UN Development Project on the Kabanga nickel project in Tanzania.
Anderson also served as a director of the association in the early 1990s. It was his 50th straight year at the convention. “Someone said I should bequeath my liver to medical science,” said Anderson, upon accepting his award.
The second winner is Bob Parsons for his contributions to the PDAC.
Parsons served on the PDAC board of directors for 18 years (1985 to 2003), and is a former vice-president. As chairman of the association’s finance and taxation committee, he was able to provide wise counsel and direction to the association through some turbulent times.
During the 1980s, Parsons was a key player in the PDAC’s lobbying for the Mineral Exploration Depletion Allowance, and its successor, the Canadian Exploration Incentive Program. These two programs helped to revitalize the mineral exploration industry in Canada.
One of his greatest accomplishments was in pushing for the Canadian Income Tax Act to be amended so that diamonds would be accorded the same tax treatment as other minerals. Previously, the income tax definition of “mineral” did not include diamonds. Many in the industry also benefited from reading Parson’s tax notes column in the CIM Bulletin, which he wrote from 1976 to 1997.
Finally, the PDAC presented its special achievement awards, of which there were (once again) two recipients.
The first special achievement award was given to Barry French and Bill Breukelman, for founding Sciex, a company that has brought the technology of ICP-MS from its development in a University of Toronto laboratory to commercialization. ICP-MS is a technique of elemental analysis that has revolutionized geochemical exploration and is the workhorse of today’s geo-analytical labs. MDS-Sciex employs over 500 individuals and has annual revenues of over $500 million.
The other Special Achievement Award went to Attilio G. Spat. Spat received the award for his lifetime of prospecting and for his discovery of the Angostura gold-silver project in northeastern Colombia.
Spat was born near Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, France, in 1927. There, in the French Alps, his father was mining slate used for roofing. Before that, family members had mined silver in Austria, coal in the German Ruhr, and gold in Colorado.
In 1952, at the age of 25 and armed with a diploma from the mining school in Agordo, northern Italy, Spat emigrated to Canada. He worked as a miner and assistant geologist for Mindamar Metals’ copper-silver mine in Stirling, Cape Breton. He later went back to school, earning a B.Sc. in geology and an M.Sc. in mineral exploration from McGill.
His career then took him all over the world. In the early 1960s he was senior geologist and technical director of five tin mines in Bolivia. Later that decade he was back in Canada examining mining properties and supervising drilling projects in Ontario and British Columbia for
In 1993, at an age when most people are ready to hang up their prospecting boots and put their rock hammer away, Spat set off on yet another adventure. Having previously examined and sampled prospects in the Angostura region of Colombia, he proposed the project to
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