LAST BUT NOT LEAST — OMA elects chairman

For the first time, the Ontario Mining Association (OMA) has elected a chairman from a mining company in southern Ontario.

W.R.C. (Bill) Macdonald is president and chief executive officer of CGC Inc., which mines gypsum in Hagersville and manufactures wallboard and other home and industrial products.

“While the bulk of mining takes place in northern Ontario, commodities such as gypsum, salt, silica, talc, nepheline syenite, building stone and graphite are mined and processed in southern Ontario,” Macdonald said upon accepting the position.

“In Ontario, this $5-billion-plus-a-year business employs about 30,000 people directly, more than 55,000 indirectly and generates tax revenues to all levels of government in the range of $1.3 billion annually,” he added. Macdonald succeeds Warren Holmes as chairman. The OMA, founded in 1920, has 43 member companies.