Stephen Roman dead at age 66

Stephen B. Roman, the man who took control of a penny mining stock in 1953 and built it into one of the largest mining empires in Canada, has died. He was 66.

A spokesman for Denison Mines said Roman died suddenly in his sleep at his home in Unionville, Ont.

Roman, who remained chairman and chief executive officer of Denison and Roman Corp., which holds a controlling interest in Denison, until his death, was named The Northern Miner’s Mining Man of the Year in 1977 when he engineered the largest- ever uranium sale by a uranium producer. At the time the contract was estimated to be worth $5 billion.

He also was a successful farmer, breeding champion cattle on his Romandale farm in Unionville just north of Toronto.

And perhaps one of his proudest contributions was his involvement as chairman of the building committee and the main benefactor for the Cathedral of the Transfiguration in Unionville. Consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1984, it is the religious centre for Slovaks of the Byzantine Rite in Canada.

He was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 1987.

Roman was born in Slovakia, now part of Czechoslovakia, on April 17, 1921. His education at an agricultural college in Slovakia ended abruptly when he emigrated with his older brother, George, to Canada in June, 1937. Those early years in Canada were so difficult, as one story goes, that the two brothers negotiated a deal whereby Stephen would be loaned out for farm work in exchange for the use of a horse on the Roman brothers’ struggling farm.

The two persevered, but by 1940 Stephen left the farm. He served in the Second World War with the Canadian Army and, after the war, began playing the penny mining stocks. His first major success came in 1953 when he sold his $10,000 investment in the Concord Mining Syndicate for $2 million after the syndicate discovered oil in Leduc, Alta.

With those profits he bought a stake in North Denison Mines at 8.5 cents per share and by 1954 he controlled the company, changing its name to Consolidated Denison Mines.

It was Denison’s purchase of 83 mining claims in the Elliot Lake area for $30,000 cash and 500,000 shares of Consolidated Denison that catapulted the company into the major leagues of the world’s mining industry. After drilling just eight holes, an orebody had been outlined. After just the second hole, Denison stock began a climb considered sensational even in the volatile 1950s.

“That was the cork in bottle for Steve,” says Dr. Franc Joubin, who discovered the Elliot Lake uranium orebody while working for Joseph Hirshhorn in 1953. “He opened the bottle and the genie emerged.”

The Denison uranium mine at Elliot Lake is producing to this day. Today, Denison Mines has assets of $1.4 billion, generates revenue of half a billion dollars annually and turned a profit of $27 million in 1987.

“Stephen Roman was a brilliant competitor whom I greatly respect,” says Joubin recalling the early 1950s. “His qualities of global imagination, self-confidence, financial courage and sound judgment were extraordinary. He had few equals and no superiors in the intensely competitive world of mine finders.”

Roman parlayed his success at Elliot Lake into an empire that spans the globe. Denison today is involved in oil and gas production in Greece, Egypt, Spain, Italy and Western Canada, financial services through a 45% interest in Standard Trustco, potash mining in New Brunswick, coal mining in British Columbia and industrial mineral production throughout North America.

Roman married Betty, daughter of John Gardon, in 1945. He is survived by his wife and their seven children.

A Mass was held at the Cathedral of the Transfiguration March 26.