New home for Hall of Fame — Industry greats will stare down on students in Mining Building

After nine years on the road, the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame has arrived home.

On May 14, the Hall took up permanent residence in the Mining Building of the University of Toronto, a building where a large number of the inductees received their first instruction in the crafts of mining and geology.

In a ceremony attended by representatives of the Hall of Fame, the University, and the Canadian and Ontario governments, two members of the Hall helped cut a ribbon to signify the official opening. Also in attendance was a representative of the town council of Elliot Lake, the town that provided an interim home for the Hall of Fame in its Mining and Nuclear Museum for the past two years.

U of T President Robert Prichard recalled that his first job was as a prospector working for William James, son of inductee William James, Sr. He expressed the University’s intention to maintain mining programs that rank with the best in the world and said, “We’re delighted, we’re honored by this association.”

Dean of Engineering Michael Charles noted that the opening of the Hall of Fame came at an appropriate time: “This is a very special year for the faculty,” he said. “We are celebrating our 125th anniversary.” He noted that the first programs offered by the university’s School of Practical Science in 1873 were in applied chemistry, mineral assaying, and engineering, which at the time encompassed civil, mining and mechanical engineering.

Ontario’s minister of northern development and mines, Christopher Hodgson, described the Hall of Fame as “a symbol of the effort and excitement Canadians have brought to the mining industry,” and paid tribute to Ontario’s first Provincial Geologist, W.G. Miller, one of the first people named to the Hall.

The keynote speech was delivered by inductee Harold Seigel, a renowned geophysicist, who said members of the Hall had been instrumental in creating a giant mining industry, and had, in the process, developed Canada’s strong foundation in exploration, mining and metallurgical technology. “It has been an unfortunate misconception in political circles that the mineral industry and research-and-development are mutually incompatible,” said Seigel. “I once heard our federal minister responsible for industry and trade bemoan the fact that Canada was doomed to have a low national investment in R&D, relative to gross domestic product, because a substantial component of that GDP was in the natural resources field.” Calling that idea “nonsense,” Seigel pointed out that Canadians have historically led the world in the creation of “highly exportable” mining-related technology.

Offering thanks to Seigel for his remarks, Bernadette Lyons, a graduate student from the Department of Mining Engineering at Queen’s University, noted how “one of the industry’s greatest strengths is its close ties to, and support of, education.”

Hall of Fame inductee Maurice Brown, who joined Seigel and three other inductees — Walter Curlook, Charles Michener, and Stephen Ogryzlo — in cutting the ribbon to open the Hall, recalled that he had seen the Mining Building for the first time in the spring of 1933, and found it damp, dark and dull. Praising the renovations that had been done since the resurrection of mining engineering as the Lassonde Program, he said, “When we first looked at coming here [with the Hall of Fame] they hadn’t done much work, and I thought, holy geez, it’s still as damp, dark and dull as ever.” Brown also took delivery of a cheque for $30,000, a bequest from the estate of inductee Paul Penna, who died in 1996. The donation will be repeated annually for the life of the estate.