Alex Knox, Vice President (Updated March 2010 - Sherri Hodder)

In the mid to late 1960's, the mineral exploration scene in Calgary was small. Great Plains Development, Imperial Oil, Scurry Rainbow and others maintained small mineral exploration groups, mainly engaged in the search for gold and base metals. Don Sawyer, Murray Pyke, Sandy Dean and Al Swanson were some of the geologists working for these companies. At this time the Red Fox bar in the Holiday Inn (now Ramada) was the informal meeting place for the mineral exploration community.

The discovery by Gulf Minerals of the Rabbit Lake uranium deposit in the summer of 1968 changed the focus. Oil companies, large and small, began acquiring and exploring ground in the vicinity of Rabbit Lake and the first Athabasca uranium staking rush was on. Pan Ocean Oil (Al Swanson), Candel Oil (Bill Leuchner), Wollaston Lake Mines (Murray Pyke, Ron Netolitzky, Ken Lintott) and Norcen Energy (Laurie Smith, Don Sawyer, Terry Turner) were some of the smaller Calgary companies involved. Ed Schiller moved to Calgary in 1970.