Hall of Fame Inductees (November 27, 2000)

William Guy Brissenden

(born 1915)

A hands-on approach to problem-solving enabled William Guy Brissenden to master repeated challenges during a lengthy career spent mostly with Noranda. His first challenge came at Gasp Copper in Quebec, which was then wrestling with how to mine its huge, low-grade underground deposits at a profit. After intensive study, Brissenden’s room-and-pillar method was chosen as best-suited for the tabular, gently dipping orebodies. It proved so successful that engineers from around the world came to study the operation. Gasp Copper’s mine, mill and smelter at Murdochville operated for 44 years, providing much needed employment and benefits to the Quebec economy. Later, Brissenden led Noranda’s team when it acquired control of Brunswick Mining & Smelting and helped it become the major zinc-lead operation in eastern Canada. On the metallurgical front, he convinced Noranda’s board to invest in new technology that extended the life of the Horne smelter in Quebec. He went on to have a successful career as a mining executive and consulting engineer with the Patino organization and its affiliated companies.

Brissenden was born in Halifax and obtained a B.Sc. degree in mining engineering from McGill University in 1937, followed by his M.Sc. in 1938.