The Northern Miner 1981 “Mining Man of the Year” Peter Allen – by Laura Reid

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

Peter Allen, president and chief executive officer of the Little Long Lac group of companies, smiles self-consciously as the photographer maneuvers around his office, snapping picture after picture. Mr. Allen obliges the request for “just one more shot,” but when the session is finished, he breaks into a spontaneous grin of relief.

Except when facing a camera, Mr. Allen smiles easily – and with good reason. He is seemingly only a few steps away from  realizing his ambition to take Little Long Lac, whose fortunes have changed as frequently as the price of gold, into the mining major leagues. This year, with the gold price stalled at $US400 an oz., he has doubled his company’s operating income compared with 1980’s. This financial feat follows the start-up of two new gold mines in the past three years. And at a boyish 41, Peter Ackerman Allen is the youngest Man-of-the-Year ever selected by The Northern Miners.

He may also be the least-known recipient. Certainly the group of companies that he controls has been well-publicized in the past year, through its successful but initially controversial policy of selling gold forward., through subsidiary’s Willroy Mines’ $21.4-million lawsuit against New Cinch Uranium, through $12 million in dividend payments while other companies were cutting or dropping them altogether, and through the corporate reorganization completed in the fall.

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The Northern Miner 1995 “Mining Man of the Year” Albert Chislett and Christopher Verbiski – by Vivian Danielson

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

Much ado is made of the sophisticated technology that is available to help find mineral deposits. While these techniques are unquestionably valuable, they will never render obsolete “boot-and-hammer” prospecting of the type that led to the discovery of the Voisey’s Bay nickel-copper-cobalt discovery near Nain, Labrador.

The chain of events leading to the discovery began when two prospectors spotted a rust-colored outcrop covering the side of a hill near Voisey’s Bay while performing regional reconnaissance for Diamond Fields Resources (TSE).

After landing on the gossanous outcrop and breaking open fresh rock which revealed stringers of chalcopyrite, the prospectors realized they had found a prospect with real potential. They sat on the hill and started envisioning what the surrounding countryside was going to look like in 10 years, with a mine and a road.

That Voisey’s Bay went on to become the mining story of 1995, worldwide, comes as no surprise to the two prospectors who made the original discovery: Albert Chislett, 46, and Christopher Verbiski, 27. Both men live in St. John’s, Nfld., where their company, Archean Resources, is based. And both have extensive experience working on exploration projects in Labrador and Newfoundland.

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The Northern Miner 1998 “Mining Man of the Year” Hugo Dummett – by Vivian Danielson

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

BHP executive catalyst for Ekati mine

The unsung hero behind the opening of Canada’s first diamond mine is a modest gentleman who never hesitates to praise the accomplishments of his team and his partners. Yet Hugo Dummett, The Northern Miner’s Man of the Year for 1998, has the unusual distinction of being a catalyst for both the discovery and development of the Ekati diamond mine, which made Canadian mining history when it was officially opened on Oct. 14.

In the early days of the diamond discoveries at Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories, Dummett was the face of BHP Diamonds, the unit of Australian mining giant Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP-N) that today holds a 51% operating interest in Ekati. His faith in the project, in the people working on it, and in the science behind it never wavered, even when skeptics called the project a pipe dream, the people obsessed, and the science fanciful.

Born in Springs, Transvaal, South Africa, Dummett obtained his bachelor of science in 1964 from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He worked as an exploration geologist for Anglo American and other large corporations before emigrating to Australia in 1970, where he joined a small exploration group and pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Queensland. In 1977, he came to the U.S. as a senior geologist for Superior Oil’s minerals division. He joined BHP in 1989 and rose through the ranks to his current post as president and group general manager, exploration.

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The Northern Miner’s 1994 “Mining Man of the Year” Louis Gignac – by Vivian Danielson

Since 1915, the Northern Miner weekly newspaper has chronicled Canada’s globally significant mining sector.

Back in 1986, before Louis Gignac accepted the opportunity to head up a public mining company holding the crown jewels of Quebec’s government-owned Soquem, he wanted assurances that the company would be truly private and not in any way an instrument of government policy.

After securing this hands-off pledge, Gignac set out to build a gold mining company that was entrepreneurial in nature and primed for the big leagues. At the onset, Gignac made it clear that his growth plans for Cambior (TSE) would not be restricted to the Quebec projects inherited from the Soquem privatization.

“We will go wherever the opportunity arises,” Gignac told The Northern Miner at the time of Cambior’s public offering. These proved to be prophetic words. Cambior’s roots are still firmly planted in Quebec, where a number of its mines are situated. But the operating experience gained in Quebec also gave the company the expertise and the confidence to compete on an international level. Today, much of the company’s gold production comes from outside North America, and its current development and advanced exploration projects reflect an aggressive diversification into base metals.

For his role in shaping Cambior into one of Canada’s foremost mining companies and for other industry achievements, The Northern Miner has named Louis Gignac, 44, its “Mining Man of the Year” for 1994.

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