PROFILE Queenston’s Harbinson banks on Kirkland Lake

The Kirkland Lake area in northeastern Ontario has been famous for gold production since early this century. Today it remains a staking ground for Canadian miners. Queenston Mining, for one, takes pride in being the largest claimholder and an active exploration player in the camp, notes President and Chairman Hugh Harbinson, 43, in a recent interview with The Northern Miner.

Also situated in northeastern Ontario is the Robertson Twp. copper-zinc prospect, 60% owned by Queenston and 40% by Strike Minerals. Queenston, listed on The Toronto Stock Exchange and since last November on the Stuttgart Stock Exchange in Germany, has raised $500,000 in a private placement in Europe to finance the initial exploration at Robertson. The effort to boost Queenston’s presence in Europe was prompted by the unification of Germany, says Harbinson.

Other properties owned or explored by Queenston include Battle Mountain, Upper Beaver Mine, Upper Canada Mine and Pawnee — all in the Kirkland Lake area. Last year the company’s revenue came largely from a royalty on LAC Minerals’ Macassa gold mine, the only remaining producer in the camp.

At 15, Harbinson was hired by Kennecott Copper as a field assistant and shipped to Ungava in northern Quebec, where he had his first mining experience. One summer, Harbinson was a construction worker at the Gordtrum mine in Ireland. Detained there by bad weather, he failed to submit his application for admission to a mining college on time. He, however, was accepted by the psychology department at the University of Western Ontario, from which he graduated in 1970.

Harbinson sees the relevance of psychology to mining. “Sometimes you have got to be a little bit nuts to be in this business,” he says. “The risk involved is against all odds but the reward is fantastic.” His academic study prepared him for handling employee relations for the Ontario government (1970-73) and then at Inco Ltd. (1973-78).

In 1979 he joined Harbinson Mining & Oil Group, headed by his father, Noble; in 1985 the son, in his own words, “flew the nest” to carve out a path of his own. Two years later, he became president of Queenston Mining.

Married to Deborah, Harbinson has a son and a daughter. At 5, Andrew wants to follow in his father’s footstep to be a gold miner and has named his teddy bear “Kirkland.” Recently, Harbinson was invited to give a talk on minerals at his children’s grade school.

Despite the recession, Harbinson believes the market for metals will gradually improve. “This country is founded on natural resources,” he says. “Besides, there is no room for pessimists in the mining industry. We have to be a dreamer.”