Sarissa Resources Inc (SRSR)

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Norman Bell Keevil (1910 - 1989) Inducted in 1990
To win acclaim in one lifetime either as a prospector, a scientist, a mine maker or a corporate builder is no small achievement; each occupation requires a high degree of talent, competence and energy. These three qualities Norman Keevil possessed and employed in abundance as indicated by the act that he achieved preeminence in all four endeavors. Today’s impressive Teck mining organization is a monument to his many-faceted character.

Norman Keevil was born on a farm in Saskatchewan in 1910. He obtained a B.Sc. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1930 and a M.Sc. in 1932. He spent the depression years working with the Geological Survey of Canada, acquiring a hands-on knowledge of geology while mapping in the Prairies and Northwest Territories. He then entered Harvard University and earned a Ph.D. in 1937 followed by three years post-doctoral research in geophysics at MIT. In 1943, he returned to Canada to pioneer the teaching of geophysics at the University of Toronto. As an academic, he published 42 scientific papers.

Dr. Keevil left his academic career in 1946 to establish Mining Geophysics Corporation, a consulting organization. As a consultant to Dominion Gulf Company, he became familiar with an airborne magnetic device developed during World War II for submarine detection. When the detector was declassified for peacetime use, Dr. Keevil and his staff began using it and integrating its data in terms of mining geophysics.

During testing of this equipment for Dominion Gulf Company, for whom he flew some 100,000 miles, a strong magnetic anomaly was discovered in the Lake Temagami region. Gulf decided not to pursue this prospect and when Dr. Keevil left the company in 1947, he was given freedom to explore the area. Seven years later, Dr. Keevil and his associates succeeded in finding the high-grade copper deposit that became the Temagami Mine. The effect of this discovery was twofold: airborne magnetic surveys changed the nature of mining exploration; and the Temagami Mine became the taproot of the energetic Teck Corporation he founded.

From 1963 to 1981, when he became chairman of the board, Dr. Keevil led the Teck Corporation as president and chief executive officer. During this period, Teck acquired major interests in a group of mines with dazzling speed. Coming under the Teck flag were such familiar mining names as Mattagami, Pickle Crow, Teck-Hughes, Lamaque, Kirkland Minerals, Tegren, Consolidated Howey, Canadian Devonian Petroleums, Steelman oil fields, Highland-Bell, Beaverdell, Iso Mines, Brameda Resources, Highmont and Afton.

Dr. Keevil’s genius as a scientist in the field of mining geophysics served him well in the location of viable mining properties and on the assessment of properties for possible acquisition. In addition to sound judgment on mine content, he exhibited equivalent judgment and expertise in the all-important matter of mine financing. Other mines came under the Teck banner through the 1970’s, one of the more spectacular. being a joint venture with International Corona Resources in the David Bell Mine in Hemlo.

When Dr. Keevil died at the age of 78, the mining interests of the company he founded reached from British Columbia to Newfoundland.

His many awards include the Order of Canada, the Inco Medal awarded by The Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Edgar A. Scholz Medal.

A modest man, he was, nonetheless, visibly delighted with one achievement: a goal he scored for Teck in the annual hockey game at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto against the best team that could be mustered by the Prospectors and Developers Association. He was 78 at the time.

Dr. Norman B. Keevil (b. 1938) Inducted in 2004

As a scientist, an explorationist, an entrepreneur, an innovator and a mining leader, Dr. Norman B. Keevil has contributed mightily to his industry, his province, and his country.

Teck Corporation started life with a few small gold mines in Ontario and Quebec. Thirty years ago its revenues were $11 million, mainly from oil, and its assets amounted to $48 million.

After a number of amalgamations, a move to Vancouver from Toronto, a merger and a name change, Teck Cominco today is a diversified mining and refining company. It mines gold, base metals and coal in Canada, the U.S. and Peru, and refines metals in Canada and Peru. It is the world’s largest zinc miner. In 2002 its revenues were over $2 billion, and its assets were valued at over $5 billion.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his Saskatoon-born father was undertaking research at Harvard, Keevil obtained a B.A.Sc. in applied geology from the University of Toronto in 1959, and a Ph.D. from the University of California (Berkeley) in 1964. He joined Teck in 1962. In 1981 he became President and Chief Executive Officer, then chairman and CEO in 2000, and non-Executive Chairman in 2001.

According to Keevil, there are three things necessary to build a successful mining company: good orebodies, the financial capital to develop them, and good people.

This philosophy obviously works, for Teck Cominco has built successful mines across Canada, in British Columbia, the Yukon, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland, and in more recent years in Australia, Chile, Peru and the United States.

Keevil is a shrewd deal-maker with an uncanny ability to recognize emerging situations in their early stages, for example, the Northeast B.C. coal developments, the Hemlo gold camp, and Voisey’s Bay. In 1986 Teck surprised the corporate community by joining with Metallgesellschaft and MIM to buy a 31% interest in Cominco Limited. Eventually Teck bought out its partners. In 2001 it increased its interest to 100%, and Teck Cominco was born.

For decades, Norman Keevil has had the reputation of dealing fairly with prospectors and junior mining companies. His pursuit of win-win scenarios has made Teck the “Partner of Choice” for many of them.

Throughout times of volatile metal prices and difficult financial circumstances he has worked with government and others in the industry through the Mining Association of Canada to bring benefits to the entire industry that might otherwise not have been. As Chairman of MAC he also made a significant contribution to the development of MAC’s Environmental Policy.

On many occasions, particularly in B.C., Keevil has taken the lead in organizing industry support of positive government initiatives, just as he has taken the lead in providing constructive criticism of negative government policy.

He has built bridges between academic research and industry. He is an avid supporter of the Mineral Deposits Research Unit at the University of British Columbia. Teck Cominco established the Norman B. Keevil Chair in Mineral Exploration at UBC, raising the level of research activity and the profile of mineral exploration.

In addition to his support for UBC, Keevil helped to establish the Teck Chair in Exploration Geophysics at the University of Toronto, a Canadian Mining Chair at the Mining Centre of the Engineering Faculty of the Pontificia, Universidad Catolica de Chile, and a scholarship in earth sciences at the University of Western Ontario.

Dr. Keevil’s business acumen, his vision and his leadership, relating to mining industry and broad-based community issues as well as his own company, have produced a remarkable inductee for the CMHF. In this, he follows in the footsteps of his father, Dr. Norman B. Keevil Sr, who was inducted into the CMHF in 1990, yet he walks his own distinguished path.

http://mininghalloffame.ca/inductees/115/
http://mininghalloffame.ca/inductees/26/