Page 55 Robert Rob McEwen is one of Canada s most in novative original and dynamic min ing entrepren eurs He is best known for transforming Goldcorp Inc from a holding com pany into a global goldmining pow erhouse and re tripled in the next 14 months as it grew through a series of mer gers into one of the world s lar gest gold produc ers He went on to build a new fagship McEwen Min ing while supporting many worthy causes through do nations totalling more than 50 million to date Born and raised in T oronto McEwen worked at his father s investment frm after earning a BA from the University of W estern Ontario in 1973 followed by an MBA from Y ork University in 1978 In the 1980s he took the reins of Goldcorp then a gold fund and managed its investment portfolio In 1989 he led Gold corp s acquisition of Dickinson Mines and its aging and capitalstarved gold mine in the famous Red Lake camp and began building an operating company His faith in the mine s untapped potential was rewarded af ter a 10millio n exploration led to a highgrade discov ery in the mid1990s In a brilliant move he created the Goldcorp Challenge and placed the mine s geological data since 1948 on the internet and ofered 575000 in prize s for the best explora tion concepts More than 1000 participa nts from 80 countries took part result ing in more than 50 new tar gets 80 of which yielded total gold resources valued at 6 billion The Red Lake mine was transformed from a 50000ounce producer in 1997 to a 500000ounce producer in 2001 while cash costs fell from 360 per ounce to 60 per ounce over this period The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame has this to say about McEwen vitalizing Ontario s Red Lake gold mine through the discovery of new highgrade resources at depth His famous Goldcorp Challenge in 2000 which provided open access to 50 years of proprietary geological data from Red Lake and ofered prizes to anyone who could fnd the next six million ounces of gold created an esti mated 6 billion of value from subsequent discoveries McEwen is also an astute investor and corporate strat egist as demonstrated by Goldcorp s friendly mer ger with Wheaton River Minerals in 2005 Goldcorp shares Page 55 In 2017 McEwen was named to the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame