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Côme Carbonneau
Born in November, 1923, in Sainte-Foy, Que., Carbonneau earned
a B.A. from Laval University in 1943; a B.A.Sc. in 1948, again
from Laval; an M.A.Sc. from the University of British Columbia
in 1949; and a Ph.D. in Geology from McGill University in 1953.
He was a post-doctoral fellow at Louvain University, Belgium in
1954.
From 1951 to 1963, he was professor of Geology at Ecole Polytechnique
and the University of Montreal. He then went into the private
sector, joining St. Lawrence Columbium as executive vice-president.
It was in 1965 that he became founding president of SOQUEM. Under
his leadership, he introduced an entrepreneurial strategy that
today goes under the buzzword "intraprenuership." On
the technical side, SOQUEM exploration teams control developed
an inexpensive airborne radiometric and spectrometric survey system
that was flown in light aircraft. This led to three niobium discoveries.
From 1981 to 1986, he was president and CEO of Falconbridge Copper.
During his tenure, three deposits were discovered - the Ansil base
metal orebody, the Lac Shortt gold mine and the Winston Lake zinc
operation.
Throughout his mining career, his tenacity, leadership and dedication
resulted in the development of other mines as well, the Niobec
mine, for example, and the Seleine and Louvem mines.
After SOQUEM, he returned to academia joining the Faculty of Science
and Engineering at Laval University.
Carbonneau has been on the board of governors of both Laval and
McGill universities. He was also a member of the Canadian Mineral
Industry Education Foundation.
Numerous awards have come his way, notably the Selwyn G. Blaylock
Medal and the A.O. Dufresne Award, both from the Canadian Institute
of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, and the Nicolas-Denys Award
of the Association of Prospectors of Quebec. As well, he is an
Officer of the Order of Canada. He also received a Laureate of
the Geoscientific Merit Award from the Professional Association
of Geologists and Geophysicists of Quebec.
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Côme Carbonneau had an unusual career for a mining man.
It straddled not only the academic and private-sector fields,
but also reached into the public sector where he became the builder
and developer of the novel, state-owned enterprise known as SOQUEM.
During his time with Quebec's SOQUEM from 1965 to 1977, the company
discovered five mineral deposits at an average cost of $3 million
per discovery. The Doyon mine, currently among the largest Canadian
gold producers, was his biggest exploration achievement with SOQUEM.