Board Of Directors

Mike Grant

President

Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association

 

Mike Grant was elected to the Board of Directors in April 2017 following his retirement from the Ministry of Northern Development & Mines where he spent 32 years in various roles with the Ontario Geological Survey and the Mineral Development Group.

 

Mike has degrees in chemistry & geology and experience in exploration for a variety of base, precious and energy minerals. He is NWOPA's representative on the Local Citizens Committee (LCC) for MNRF's Lakehead Forest. He resides in Thunder Bay.

 

 

Rudy Wahl

Vice-President

Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association

 

Rudy Wahl was elected to the Board of Directors in April 2018.

 

He has worked in Mineral Exploration since 1989 staking claims, prospecting, optioning properties. In 2012, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association (NWOPA).

 

April 2015, he received the Bernie Schneider’s Discovery of the Year Award for 2014. This award recognized

his discovery of a potential high-grade Niobium - Phosphate deposit in the Prairie Lake area.

 

On June 03, 2017 Rudy received an Honorary Doctor Degree of Science from the Lakehead University Thunder

Bay.

 

During his prospecting work he has showed exceptional resourcefulness in familiarizing himself with ore deposit

geology and advanced mineral exploration techniques. Of significance to his success as a prospector is that he

has assimilated all of this knowledge without any formal education in these areas or employment with a major or

junior mining company. One result of his work ethic is that has obtained status within the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines Sudbury as one of the most productive prospectors in the Province. Currently, he is a

member of the Ontario Prospectors Association, NWOPA and the Prospectors and Developers Association of

Canada.

 

As a community service, Rudy has led field trips to his properties for geologists with the Ontario Geological

Survey, faculty, graduate and undergraduate students from Lakehead University. Several Lakehead undergraduate students have completed B.Sc. thesis work doing research on some of his mineral properties.

 

 

Paul Nielsen

Treasurer

Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association

 

Paul Nielsen is a graduate of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario with a B.Sc. degree in Geology. He has worked in the mining industry with junior and major companies throughout Canada including New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories for more than 40 years. He is presently a member of the Ontario Prospectors Association and Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association (NWOPA). He has served as director of NWOPA in the capacity of treasurer for the past 20 years. He has recently retired but maintains an interest in mining and exploration in Northwestern Ontario.

 

 

Cyndee Komar, Secretary

Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association

 

Cyndee Komar retired as Administrative Assistant with the Ring of Fire Secretariat with the Ministry of Northern Development & Mines in Thunder Bay in 2015.

 

From 1988 to 2011, Cyndee was Administrative Assistant with the Resident Geologist Program of the MNDM. She has been secretary for the Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association (NWOPA) since 1999 providing administrative

services to the board, liaising with the membership & mining sector, as well as arranging annual events. Cyndee has many years of experience with client services regarding mineral exploration activities in the Thunder Bay area. She can be contacted at nwopa@tbaytel.net

 

 

Shannon Zurevinski

Director

Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association

 

Shannon Zurevinski started teaching as an Assistant Professor in the Geology department at Lakehead University in August 2013. Prior to this, she was the Mineral Deposit Compilation Geoscientist for Northwestern Ontario with the Resident Geologist Program of the Ontario Geological Survey. Shannon is a mineralogist and her recent research has focused on the mineralogy and isotopic geochemistry of mantle-derived rocks. Shannon is a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University (B.Sc. Hon. Geology), Lakehead University (M.Sc. Geology), and the University of Alberta (Ph.D. Earth and Atmospheric Sciences).

 

 

Dorothy Campbell

Director

Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association

 

Dorothy Campbell has been working as District Geologist for 12 years with the Ontario Geological Survey-Resident Geologist Program. Her favourite part of this role is having the opportunity to work with many interesting and dedicated prospectors actively prospecting in the Thunder Bay South (TBS) district. The district extends from just west of Atikokan easterly to White River with the northern irregular boundary near Armstrong south to the international border between Canada and the US. Dorothy has served as treasurer for Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Thunder Bay Branch for 12 years and is presently a member of Women in Mining (WIM), Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association (NWOPA) and the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (APGO).

 

 

Breanne Beh

Director

Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association

 

Breanne started her career as an exploration geologist for Probe Mines at their Borden Gold Project in Chapleau, Ontario, where she worked from 2012-2016. She enjoyed working as part of the team on the fast-paced exploration project which was awarded the 2013 Ontario Prospectors Award. In 2016, she decided to return to work for Probe Metals where she is currently a project manager working on a number of their exploration projects in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.

 

Breanne attended the University of Calgary where she graduated with a BSc in Geology before completing her MSc in Geology at Lakehead University.

 

 

Daniel LaFontaine

Director

Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association

 

Daniel LaFontaine began his career as a member of the successful Borden Gold project and OPA 2013 Discovery of the Year. He is a young exploration geologist and a graduate of Lakehead University (HBSc – 2013; MSc – 2016). Starting with Probe Metals (previously Probe Mines) as a summer student, field mapping and core logging inspired a Masters research project on the structural and metamorphic control of the Borden gold deposit. He has since been co-managing various grassroots exploration projects in Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia, eager to help develop Probe’s next new discovery.

 

Pam Coles

Board Member

NWOPA

 

Pam is currently the Regional Geophysicist in Abitibi’s newest office in Thunder Bay, which opened in 2013. Her area of focus is mainly Induced Potential (IP). As Regional Geophysicist she oversees client relations and projects, mainly focused in central Canada. Outside of this, she is also a Project Geophysicist (data collection, processing, interpretation and report).

 

Pam attended Memorial University of Newfoundland, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Geophysics. After graduation she made the move to Val-d’Or, Quebec, and joined the Head office of Abitibi Geophysics. She remained there for two years before moving on to open the new branch in Thunder Bay.

 

Pam is also a contract lecturer at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay. She resides on several boards, including the North Western Ontario Prospectors Association (NWOPA) as board member, and Women in Mining North Western Ontario (WIM) as chair. She is also the Mining Day chair, which is a local event held in Thunder Bay to educate children about mining.

 

 

Ruth Huber

Director

Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association

 

Ruth Huber is a prospector who lives in the wilderness on a small hobby farm with her family. Ruth’s been in the bush since the day she could keep up to her father, prospecting and claim staking. The thrill of being outdoors, walking unvisited ground, and the possibility of finding something new has always made prospecting an adventure for her. Ruth has found multiple gold and other precious metal showings in Ontario and other provinces.