PDAC selects Watson for Prospector award

The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) will honor Mackenzie Watson for his participation in numerous mineral discoveries during the past 25 years by naming him “prospector of the year” at the PDAC’s annual convention in Toronto.

The PDAC will celebrate its 60th anniversary at the convention, scheduled for March 29-April 1 at the Royal York Hotel. This year’s theme is “the Canadian mineral industry in a competitive world.”

Watson, a native of Montreal, is president of Freewest Resources (TSE), a junior with interests in a number of exploration projects, including the Harker-Holloway (Lightning zone) gold prospect in northeastern Ontario and the Benoit Twp. gold play in northwestern Quebec.

The president of American Barrick Resources (TSE), Robert Smith, will receive the 1991 PDAC “developers” award. Smith is being honored for his role in developing the large Goldstrike gold project along Nevada’s Carlin Trend. Smith, born in Haileybury, Ont., heads a company aiming to produce one million ounces gold annually.

Receiving one of the PDAC’s “distinguished service” awards will be Walter Holyk, in honor of his contribution to the understanding of the genesis of volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits. Holyk was born in Revelstoke, B.C. Also to receive a “distinguished service” award will be John (Jack) Kentish, who has played a leading role in the promotion of mining development in eastern Canada for almost five decades. Kentish, a native of the Ukraine who came to Canada with his family at a young age, helped many prospectors to carry out their work through grubstaking syndicates and limited partnerships. Nickel producer Inco (TSE) will receive the PDAC’s “environment” award. The company is being recognized for its environmental accomplishments, including development of the sulphur dioxide process for cyanide destruction and the oxygen flash smelting process.

To help the PDAC celebrate its “diamond” anniversary, a session on diamond exploration has been organized.

The featured province this year will be Saskatchewan; the province’s minister of energy and mines, John Penner, will speak at the annual awards banquet. A new convention feature this year will be an open forum, a session which will run parallel to the main technical program for adjudicated papers on March 31.

The open forum is being organized to accommodate the persons who called after the final program was prepared in hope of presenting a paper on a mineral-related topic.

Speaking at the joint PDAC-Canadian Club luncheon March 30 will be Senator Frank Murkowski of Alaska. His talk will focus on the Alaska Minerals Commission, a body created to make recommendations to the governor and legislature on issues confronting the mining industry.

At the joint PDAC-CIM (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum) Toronto branch luncheon April 1, the guest speaker will be Charles Childers, president of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (TSE).

A post-convention seminar on mining legislation will have as the luncheon speaker Neil Sterritt, a native Gitksan from British Columbia. Theme of the address will be “native self-governance and what it means for the mineral industry.”

On March 31, a press conference is being organized by the Save Our North group, a broad-based coalition of communities, organizations and individuals from northern Ontario. The campaign started with prospectors’ associations in the north.

The campaign is focusing on a number of issues: a return to tax recognition of risk in mining investment, re-adoption of multiple-use land policies, correction of unnecessarily punitive environmental laws and enhancement of the exploration database.