Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.
The most exciting exploration undertaking of 1978 in this country, unquestionably, has been the bold and costly Beaufort Sea project of Dome Petroleum. This has not only caught the imagination of North American investors, it is attracting worldwide interest. There are many who believe that this single play holds the greatest potential of any oil exploration theatre in the world.
It is for this reason that the Northern Miner has chosen that company’s driving force, John P. Gallagher, chairman and chief executive officer, as our MAN OF THE YEAR.
“Jack Gallagher is a tremendously imaginative man,” James B. Redpath, a long-time president of the parent Dome Mines, told this reporter, adding that while exploration-oriented, he was always “looked over his shoulder for cash income, at which he has also been very, very successful”.
Founded in 1950, ‘Dome Pete’ is now a name that comes up wherever oil men meet. The financial fraternity, too, considers it to have more ‘sex appeal’ than any company in the business today. It could well be the big newsmaker of 1979. the company’s early history is interesting, for it represents the first move by an Canadian mining company to get ito the oil exploration business, whereas today there is a flood of them.