OBITUARY — Colin Spence

Colin Spence, former exploration manager with Rio Algom, has died. He was 65.

Born in Kenya, Mr. Spence graduated from London’s Royal School of Mines in 1955 with a B.Sc. in mining geology before joining Consolidated Zinc Corporation of Canada as an assistant geologist. He worked in Noranda, Que., where he helped discover the Vauze copper-zinc deposit, and Bathurst, N.B., where he explored for massive sulphides in volcanic settings.

In 1964, following the merger of Consolidated Zinc with Rio Tinto Zinc, Mr.

Spence transferred to Rio Algom, where he applied his skills to the massive sulphides of the Poirier and Anglo Rouyn mines.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was involved, with associated companies, in working on volcanic settings in Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.

In 1972, Mr. Spence became Rio Algom Exploration’s regional manager in Eastern Canada, and worked in the Precambrian Shield and the Maritimes. He was transferred, in 1974, to the west coast to act as that region’s manager, where he participated in the Gayna River zinc discovery and Welcome North’s Vulcan project.

Over the years, Mr. Spence was involved in the exploration of Cordilleran sedimentary-exhalative and Mississippi-type lead-zinc deposits, epithermal copper deposits and porphyry copper-molybdenum, and copper-gold deposits.

In 1987, he became the vice-president of Lornex Mining, eventually rising to become Rio Algom’s exploration manager in Western Canada in 1989, where he remained until his retirement earlier this year.

He is survived by his wife Andree and son David.