Canadian Mining Hall Of Fame Announces Seven New Inductees

NEWS RELEASE

TORONTO, January 14, 2010 – The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame will induct seven new members at its 22nd annual induction ceremony, to be held this evening, Thursday, January 14, 2010, at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Toronto. The new inductees will bring the total number of members in the Hall of Fame to 147 since the Hall was established in 1988.The 2010 inductees are: a trio of legendary prospectors whose gold discoveries 100 years ago put Timmins on the map; a venture capitalist; a leader in the discovery of Canada’s first diamond mine; a respected mining consultant; and an English teacher of the classics who helped Canada’s mining industry survive in the post-World War II period.

Timmins Mine Finders: In 1909, prospectors Benny Hollinger (1885-1919), Sandy McIntyre (1869-1943) and Jack Wilson (1872-1948) discovered the gold deposits that became the prolific Hollinger, McIntyre and Dome mines in Timmins. In 2010, the City of Timmins is marking the 100th anniversary of the start-up of production from these mines.

Peter M. Brown (born 1941): Chairman of Canaccord Financial and its predecessors since 1968, Peter Brown of Vancouver, B.C., has helped hundreds of resource entrepreneurs and emerging companies gain access to venture capital. Resulting successes include the Hemlo, Eskay Creek and Ekati mines in Canada and Canadian developments abroad. Canaccord is Canada’s largest independent investment dealer in Canada, and a global leader in the financing of resource companies. Brown is also an active volunteer, currently serving as a director and member of the finance committee of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Hugo T. Dummett (1940-2002): Born in South Africa, Hugo Dummett was a highly respected economic geologist described as “the brains, the ideas and the energy” behind the discovery of the Ekati deposit in the Northwest Territories, Canada’s first diamond mine. He also had exploration successes in Mongolia, where a copper-gold deposit under development is named after him, and in China and Africa. At the time of his premature death in a car accident in Africa, he was president of the Society of Economic Geologists.

Graham Farquharson (born 1940): A native of Timmins, Graham Farquharson is president of Strathcona Mineral Services of Toronto, and one of the mining industry’s most highly respected consultants. He was instrumental in the development and management of Canada’s first mine north of the Arctic Circle, Nanisivik on Baffin Island, and in the exposure of the Bre-X fraud. Since 1992 he has been chairman of the Canadian Mineral Industry Education Foundation, the largest provider of university scholarships to students entering the mining industry in Canada.

Victor C. Wansbrough (1901-1994): British-born Victor Wansbrough was appointed the first Vice President and Managing Director of the Canadian Metal Mining Association (now the Mining Association of Canada) in 1947, and led the association until his retirement in 1968. His accomplishments include arranging for immigrants to come to Canada from displaced persons camps in Europe, to ease labor shortages in the mining industry. His discussions with the Minister of Finance about the problems caused by a fixed gold price of $35 per ounce resulted in the passing of the Emergency Gold Mining Assistance Act in 1948, which kept gold mining alive in Canada for 25 years.

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame honors those who have demonstrated outstanding lifetime achievements to the benefit of the Canadian minerals industry. It is sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, the Mining Association of Canada, The Northern Miner newspaper and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. Associate sponsors include the mining associations of British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan and the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia.

The Hall’s inductees are featured at three locations. The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Gallery at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto opened in December 2008, and showcases the inductees through a fully bilingual, interactive video wall that also explains how mining touches every aspect of our lives. The original Hall exhibit is located in the University of Toronto’s Mining Building at 170 College Street, Toronto, while Elliot Lake in northern Ontario features the inductees at its Nuclear and Mining Museum in the Lester B. Pearson Civic Centre.

More information about the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame and the new inductees is available at its website, www.halloffame.mining.ca

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For further information, contact:

Ted Yates, Chairman,
Canadian Mining Hall of Fame
Telephone: 416-484-9352

Becky Bays, CMHF Event Manager
Telephone: 416-488-9052
Email: cmhf.info[at]agendum.ca