Viola R MacMillan

Early life

Violet Rita Huggard was born in the small town of Dee Bank, Ontario, three miles outside of Windermere, Ontario, Canada. She was the thirteenth of fifteen children born to an impoverished family.

Marriage

In 1923, she married her husband George MacMillan at the age of 20.

Career

MacMillan started her working career as a stenographer. Eventually she split her time working as a stenographer in the winter and a part-time prospector the remainder of the year. MacMillan is noted for the discovery of the Hallnor deposit as part of the second wave of the Porcupine Gold Rush. MacMillan was also responsible for the development of the Canadian Arrow open pit gold deposit. When prospecting in Quebec MacMillan had to have her husband file her mining claims, as women were legally prohibited. She found major gold deposits in the Kirkland Lake area, northern Quebec, and British Columbia, and staked major uranium claims in northern Saskatchewan.

Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada

MacMillan was credited with the development of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) into a professional organisation. George MacMillan was elected president in 1941 with Viola elected as Secretary-Treasurer. In 1942, she organised a full day's convention complete with guest speakers, a dinner, and a dance for 150 people. She introduced a one dollar membership fee to fund the budget of the organisation. She was a lobbyist of the Canadian government getting beneficial legislation such as the Emergency Gold Mining Act, 1948 for the PDAC.

Windfall Oils and Mines scandal

In the summer of 1964, George and Viola MacMillan had staked the Windfall claim in north eastern Ontario near Timmins, Ontario. Stock was issued on the Toronto market as Windfall Oils and Mines. In late winter 1964, Texas Gulf Sulphur geologists working near Timmins found a copper-silver-zinc ore body worth an estimated $2 billion. In July 1965, rumours circulated in Toronto that the Texas Gulf Sulphur ore body reached the MacMillan's claim. MacMillan was at the centre of the Windfall gold mining stock scam that effectively killed off, at least temporarily, the Toronto Stock Exchange as a global mining financial centre. When assays showed the Windfall claims contained very little gold, the stocks collapsed, wiping out many investors and sparking a massive Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) investigation of mine financing in Toronto.

Conviction and imprisonment

The MacMillans were not charged in the Windfall scandal. However, the OSC investigation uncovered instances of wash trading. In 1968, MacMillan was convicted and jailed for eight months for manipulating the price of gold mining stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange. After her release, MacMillan quietly returned to prospecting and mining ventures. In 1978, Viola MacMillan applied for and received a full pardon from the federal government.

Philanthropy

MacMillan spent the last few years of her life engaged in philanthropy. She donated $1.25 million to the acquisition fund of the Canadian Museum of Nature for the purchase of the "Pinch Collection". William Pinch, over the course of fifty years, had accumulated one of the world's most important mineral collections. It was purchased by the museum for $5 million in 1989. MacMillan also donated several Group of Seven art pieces to Rideau Hall.

Honours

Being the single largest contributor to the museum's acquisition fund, the Canadian Museum of Nature named the "Viola MacMillan Mineral Gallery" in her honour. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada 21 October 1992. MacMillan received her investiture 21 April 1993. She was also inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

Death

MacMillan died 26 August 1993. The bulk of her estate was distributed to charities, universities, and hospitals in 1998. Members of her family received nothing.