Calling all exploration geologists: A lesson for you all

The McGill geology faculty on a field trip, 1897
(source: dep't website)

When I read this from The Montreal Gazette (sent in by reader 'M', thanks) I thought "now there's a guy with class and style". This is the kind of thing that should set an example to a whole bunch of people. So, dear geologist-made-good, you too can be a rock star!

Geologist is a rock star

Philanthropist donates shares in Osisko to McGill

By LYNN MOORE, The GazetteDecember 30, 2009

While studying geology at McGill University in the late 1970s, Robert Wares "was a student who had 'star' written all over him," his former professor Anthony Williams-Jones recalled yesterday.

Even if that wasn't literally the case, Wares has certainly made a name for himself in Canada's mining world, winning awards and acclaim for his role in the discovery of the Canadian Malartic gold deposit now held by Osisko Mining Corp. That discovery, pegged at more than 6 million ounces and one of Canada's biggest single gold deposits, is poised to become Quebec's largest open-pit mine.

"This discovery is really important, not in just the size of the deposit but ... (because it represents) a new concept ... a paradigm shift and that is due entirely to Bob Wares," Williams-Jones said in a telephone interview.

Now Wares is giving back to his industry, his alma mater and, indirectly, to his academic mentor Williams-Jones, who is McGill's lone economic geology professor in the department of earth and planetary sciences.

Wares, Osisko's chief operating officer, has donated 250,000 Osisko shares to McGill and Osisko has matched that for a total of 500,000 shares, which were worth more than $4.2 million at the end of trading on the Toronto stock exchange yesterday.

That gift will be used to establish two tenure-track positions in economic geology, providing Williams-Jones, 64, with colleagues. The shares, coupled with a $1-billion gift from McGill's McConnell Challenge Fund, will also create a CONTINUES HERE