People/magnate, financier

Robert Friedland

Robert Friedland (born 1950), magnate, financier, from United States. Linked to nickel, copper, gold.

The lucky break

A 1978 inspection of the Warner gold mine, held in partnership with Steve Jobs, yielded only pyrite and sparked his mining career. He entered Vancouver's junior mining scene in 1980.1,2

Legacy

Contracted geologists made the Voisey's Bay nickel-copper find while he co-led Diamond Fields Resources, and Inco bought it in 1996 for 4.3 billion Canadian dollars. Ivanhoe began exploring Oyu Tolgoi in 2000, and Rio Tinto took majority control in 2012. Ivanhoe's 2009 Kamoa find is described as the DRC's largest copper discovery in a century. Historic facts only.1,2

stake to the horizon

Robert Friedland1

Story cards

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Where next

Mines

DiscoveredVoisey's BayDiamond Fields' geologists found nickel at Voisey's Bay under his lead.1LedOyu TolgoiIvanhoe began exploring Oyu Tolgoi in 2000.1DiscoveredKamoa-KakulaIvanhoe's Kamoa find was called the DRC's largest copper discovery in a century.1

Sources

  1. Robert Friedland Canadian Mining Hall of Fame
  2. Wikidata item Q7344541

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: Escondida Mine, Chile, NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Falu gruva, Lundberg, Bengt A / Europeana (CC0 1.0); Elektrisk malmletning. Undersökningar på Billiton, 1920., Okänd / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).