Norman B. Keevil

A visionary in Canada’s mining industry, Dr. Norman B. Keevil has shaped both the landscape of mineral exploration and the future of mining education at UBC.

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Norman B. Keevil Portrait

Dr Keevil is a graduate of the University of Toronto (B.A.Sc. Applied Geology) and the University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D. Geophysics). He received an honorary LL.D from the University of British Columbia in May 1993. He was Vice President Exploration at Teck Corporation from 1962 to 1968, Executive Vice President from 1968 to 1981, President and Chief Executive Officer from 1981 to 2001 and Chairman of the Board from 2001 – 2018. Through his leadership, Teck grew from a small gold mine in Northern Ontario to Canada’s largest diversified resource company with mines in Canada, the United States, Chile and Peru.

Dr Keevil is an avid supporter of research and education in mineral resources at UBC. In 2006, Teck donated $7.5 million toward the establishment of the Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering.

Dr Keevil is a lifetime director of the Mining Association of Canada. Dr. Keevil was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in January 2004 and the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 2012.


Autobiography

You can read more about his life and career in his autobiography “Never Rest on Your Ores”. The stories about his early days doing geological and geophysical exploration in Ontario and Quebec give a real sense of the fun and challenge of finding an orebody and developing a mine.

Book Titled Never Rest Your Ores by Norman B. Keevil

UBC is located on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm people (Musqueam; which means 'People of the River Grass') and Syilx Okanagan Nation. The land has always been a place of learning for the Musqueam and Syilx peoples, who for millennia have passed on their culture, history and traditions from one generation to the next.

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