A.O. Dufresne Award - Description
The A.O. Dufresne Award was established in honour of Dr. A.O. Dufresne, Past President of CIM. It recognizes exceptional achievements or distinguished contributions to mining exploration in Canada.
This Year's Winner - 2009
James J. McDougallRichmond, BC
“Over the years, he has trained and nurtured a generation of mining explorationists and contributed to the advancement of the Canadian mining industry.”
James McDougall helped discover more than 16 major deposits in the western Cordillera throughout an extraordinary career. His pioneering work in the discovery of the world-class Windy Craggy copper-gold-cobalt deposit puts him alongside Canada’s other great mine-finders. The prospective region encompassing the deposit was declared a National Park in 1995.
Born in Grand Forks, British Columbia, McDougall served overseas during the war, and then studied geology and mining engineering at the University of British Columbia, earning B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in 1951 and 1954, respectively. He began his career with the Ventures Group, later part of Falconbridge, and was appointed manager of western exploration in 1970. He retired in 1980 becoming a sought-after consultant.