Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
- McLeod, Don A.
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Donald "Don" A. McLeod was a mine developer and founder of Northair Mines (Northair Group of Companies). He was born of Scottish roots and raised in Stewart, BC, where he began his career as a pack-horse operator and miner’s helper in the 1940s. He rose through the ranks at various mines near his hometown. After managing the discovery of a rich lead-zinc deposit in Pine Point, NT, he moved his young family (including children Catherine and Bruce, who would later also achieve success in the mining industry) to Vancouver, where, in 1972, he began his own mining company: Northair Mines. As president of Northair Mines, he optioned a grassroots discovery near Whistler, known as the Brandywine Mine, and brought it into production a few years later. Over the next seven years, the Brandywine mine profitably produced more than $70 million worth of gold, silver, lead, and zinc. Hugh also developed the Summit gold mine and raised more than $200 million of equity for his Northair Group of Companies before retiring in 2014. In the 1980s, one of his companies, Newhawk Gold Mines, discovered high-grade gold deposits at the Brucejack project in the famous “Golden Triangle” north of Stewart, BC. Brucejack was ultimately acquired by Pretivm Resources, which went on to discover the 6.9-million-ounce Valley of the Kings gold deposit slated for commercial production in 2017. Hugh supported health and education causes, including the Mining for Miracles campaign and St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation through the creation of the McLeod Family Professorship in Valvular Heart Disease Intervention. In addition to being named a “Mining Living Legend” by Cambridge House, McLeod was the recipient of AME BC’s E.A. Scholz Award for excellence in mine development, and the CIM’s Proficiency Award.
Places
Stewart, BC
Vancouver
Brandywine Mine
Northair Mine
Summit Mine
Brucejack Mine
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mining company owner
Mining
Philanthropist
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Catalogued August 2023.