Page 86 By Gregory Reynolds The loss of one’ s job is devastating but for Shawn R yan having Falconbridge Ltd. eliminate its T immins exploration department at the Kidd Creek Mine in 1989 led to him moving out W est, meeting his future wife, becom ing a prospector and then a multi-m il - lionaire. On May15, his home town, T im - mins, honoured him along with two other lege nd - ary prospectors, John Larche and Don McKinnon, by giving them each a key to the city . R yan also was named the Pros - pector of the year for 2010 by the Prospectors and Developers Asso - ciation of Canada. This honour topped the two be - stowed on R yan by his Y ukon peers. In November 2009 Cathy W ood and her husband, R yan, owners of R yan - wood Explorations, saw their com - pany named Prospector of the Y ear at the 37th Annual Y ukon Geoscience Forum in Whitehorse. R yan, who was named the Y ukon’ s Prospector of the Y ear in 1999, says year after year he has watched placer miners in the Dawson district fnd and mine new ground. The White Gold District today has dozens of companies seeking old and claim staking records and being set and broke annually . Placer mining is the extraction of gold in moving water bodies. Beginning with the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896, miners took 22.5 million ounces of gold out of the Y ukon T erritory . Gold mines found in the early days of T imm ins, Kirkland Lake and Red Lake were developed from surface outcroppings contained gold and then veins were followed under ground. Many people in the mining commu - nity laughed at R yan for years after he devised a theory to answer a question more than 100 years old: where was Y ukon gold mining T immins-born Shawn R yan r evived “The Porcupine Camp” 100 Y ears of Mining Page 84 Cont’d on pg. 86