Posted by Sudbury Northern Life 
There was a somewhat subdued feeling by many in the mining
sector at the 21st annual Canadian Mining Hall of Fame dinner,
two weeks ago, at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto.
As master of ceremonies, David Harquail, president and CEO of
Franco-Nevada said, "…base metals are in the tank, good
projects can't get financing and Hy's steakhouse is now serving
crying towels with those martinis!"
However, the four inductees for 2009 - two entrepreneurial
engineers, Grenville Thomas, Bernard Michel, a geologist, Roman
Shklanka, and a mineralogist professor, Donald Gorman, - seemed
to symbolize the industry's amazing ability to create enormous
wealth and employment as well as the importance of training the
next generation of skilled technicians.
Harquail added, "…if there's one thing a miner knows, it's a
commodity cycle. And when times are bad, opportunity knocks.
Many of those at our head table tonight got here by not only
surviving many downturns but by capitalizing on them."
That head table included individuals such as Ian Pearce, CEO
Xstrata Nickel; Jim Gowans, president and CEO De Beers Canada;
Terry Bowles, president and CEO Iron Ore Company of Canada; and
Jack McOuat, director of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame; just
to name a few.
Jack McOuat gave a morale boosting speech about the new home of
the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. "I'm sure I'm not the only
person in the room happy to see the back end of 2008," Jack
McOuat began. "However, in spite of that generally miserable
year, there was at least one bright spot for the Canadian
Mining Industry. One month ago, the Teck Suite of Earth Science
Galleries was opened at the Royal Ontario Museum."
The exhibit includes three galleries: the Vale Inco Gallery of
Minerals, the Gold and Gem Gallery and the Canadian Mining Hall
of Fame Gallery.
The ROM agreement also allows for the placement of duplicate
Hall of Fame Galleries at any location in the country which the
Hall of Fame Board chooses. The first of these will be
installed at the B.C. Museum of Mining at Britannia Beach,
which is located on the road to Whistler and will be ready for
the 2010 Winter Olympics. Let's hope Sudbury's Dynamic Earth
will be one of those future locations.
The Mining Hall of Fame is an integral part of Canada's
history. Stories of intense courage, guts, greed and glory.
Stubborn, passionate and tenacious characters who pushed
themselves to the edge to make some of the most important
discoveries in the world.
These are the people who helped populate our isolated north,
helped build corporate empires and provided jobs for hundreds
of thousands, if not millions of Canadians.
Donald H. Gorman
The first inductee was professor Donald Gorman who has served
the Canadian mining industry with distinction for more than
half a century as a renowed mineralogist and superly talented
educator. Starting in 1957, "Digger" Gorman taught mineralogy
with unflagging enthusiasm for the next 41 years at the
University of Toronto. In addition to being a gifted educator,
he was also a sought-after industry consultant, applied
reseacher and an entertaining advocate for his science at
popular public events.
Harquail said, "Both in the classroom and in the field, he
inspired thousands of geology and engineering students to
pursue careers in mining and exploration."
Gorman said that he was humbled that his name will be forever
associated with Canada's mining greats in the Hall of Fame and
that a successful teacher is always measured by the success of
his students. Harquail was one of "Digger's" students in the
1970s as were a few other individuals at the head table.
Bernard M. Michel
Bernard Michel was born and educated in Paris, France and is a
graduate of the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique. He came to
Canada in 1967 as a mining engineer to contribute to the
design, construction and start-up of a large potash mine in
Lanigan, Saskatchewan.
In 1988, he moved to Cameco, where for the next 15 years he
steered the company through a merger, a restructuring,
privatization, global expansion and diversification into gold.
In addition, he encouraged the entry of First Nations peoples
into its workforce, making Cameco one of the most significant
private sector employers of Aboriginal people.
Michel said that, when you look at Canada from abroad, people
always associate this great country with this fantastic
industry. He also humorously quipped that the two Saskatchewan
minerals that he has worked with all his life - potash and
uranium - do not get enough respect by the mining industry.
Roman Shklanka
Roman Shklanka is one of only a handful of Canadian mining
greats who have helped create immense mineral wealth on several
continents, most notably for the benefit of developing nations.
In 1978, he was transferred to Australia, where he spent more
than three years searching for new projects for Placer Dome.
During this period, he helped secure the Porgera and Misima
deposits in Papua New Guinea, which became significant gold
mines.
In 2003, Shklanka became chairman of Canico Resources Corp.,
which secured and advanced the Onca Puma nickel deposit in
Brazil. Vale purchased the project for $941 million in 2005.
During his acceptance speech, Shklanka highlighted one of his
most interesting but shortest negotiations of his career.
In Ecuador, in the mid-eighties, he landed in the middle of a
jungle. After the helicopter left, the natives burned the
landing pad and to help encourage his quick departure, started
pelting him and his colleagues with stones and spears. It took
him two seconds to conclude negotiations and quickly left
through the jungle on foot. He thought that was his scariest
moment in his life until he stood at the podium to accept the
Mining Hall of Fame honour.
D. Grenville Thomas
Grenville Thomas began his career as a 16-year-old coal miner
in his native Wales, moving to Canada after graduating from
University College, Cardiff, in 1964. He found his
passion  in the vast untapped mineral potential of
northern Canada. Working in unforgiving terrain, under extreme
conditions, he honed his prospecting skills over several
decades and built up an extraordinary track record of
discoveries.
Thomas' most famous discovery in the early 1990s was the
diamond deposits that ultimately developed into the world-class
Diavik mine in the Northwest Territories.
In his acceptance speech, Thomas pointed out that the diamond
discoveries ensured that Yellowknife would continue to be one
of the great mining towns of the north, even after the closing
of its gold mines. In addition, he was extremely proud of the
effort of the diamond sector to provide employment and business
opportunities to the region's Aboriginal communities allowing
them to enter the wage economy. Diavak is one of the largest
employers of First Nations people in Canada.
Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based executive speechwriter and communications consultant who produces a pro-mining blog. More detailed summaries of the 2009 inductees can be found atwww.republicofmining.com.
