Portrait of Reuben Wells Leonard

People/magnate, engineer

Reuben Wells Leonard

Reuben Wells Leonard (1860–1930), magnate, engineer, from Canada. Linked to silver, cobalt, nickel.

The lucky break

A grubstaking venture in 1905 led to a mineral-rich claim in the centre of Cobalt, Ontario, which became Coniagas Mines, of which he was president and general manager.1,2

The downfall

In 1919 he and other Cobalt mine owners successfully prevented unionisation after a seven-week strike.1,2

Legacy

DCB says it became lore that he viewed his great wealth as a public trust. He gave to universities, churches and hospitals.1,2

Story cards

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Where next

Mines

OwnedCobalt silver campA grubstake produced a claim in the middle of Cobalt.1

Sources

  1. LEONARD, REUBEN WELLS Dictionary of Canadian Biography
  2. File pages and licence metadata for portraits (via the Commons imageinfo/extmetadata API) Wikimedia Commons

Pictures on this page: Reuben Wells Leonard.png, Unknown author (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Falu gruva, Lundberg, Bengt A / Europeana (CC0 1.0); Gold prospectors constructing a long box with a filter for panning gold. Process print after H.M. Paget, 1899., Henry Marriott Paget (Public Domain Mark 1.0); The laboratories of Marie and Pierre Curie, Paris: room where experiments on uranium ore took place. Photograph, ca. 1900., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0); South Africa: a crowd of people gathered outside The Goldfields offices in Johannesburg. 1896., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0).