Don MacLean is gone but not forgotten for the indelible mark he’s made on safety within Canada’s mining industry.
MacLean, founder of MacLean Engineering in Collingwood, is going to be posthumously inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame on Jan. 9, 2025 in a Toronto ceremony. He will be one of four inductees this year.
While MacLean died this past January, his widow Catherine MacLean said Don’s family is incredibly proud of the honour.
“It’s a huge award for Don and the family,” she said. “We’re so proud of him. It was overwhelming to hear the news.”
The focus of MacLean’s 60-year career was to enhance the safety of underground mining worldwide.
“It was his biggest thing,” said Catherine.
He spent his formative years in small mining towns in Québec where his father Don ‘Ducky’ MacLean managed local mines. Some of his experiences at that age led to him focusing on safety throughout his career.
Catherine shared a story of tragedy in MacLean’s father’s mine in northern Ontario.
“There was a mine fire when Don was almost 10 years of age. With mine fires, you can’t let them continue to grow. You have to flood them. So his father had to make the decision to flood the mine, without knowing the fate of the miners trapped 1,000 feet below the surface,” she said.
“His father agonized over that. Don watched that. He had nightmares about it. It stayed with him until the end of his life,” said Catherine.
When MacLean himself also worked in mines throughout his whole career, one of his biggest accomplishments in the mid-1990s was developing a scissor bolter, which she said revolutionized mining across the world.
“He was totally committed to making working conditions in the mines safer. He’s known all over the world for that,” she said.
Don MacLean graduated from Acadia University in 1957 with a pre-engineering degree followed by two years at McGill University where he graduated with a degree in mining engineering in 1959. While at university, he worked underground at various mines including a summer at a uranium mine in Yellowknife.
After graduating from McGill, MacLean worked underground as a shift boss for International Nickel at the Levack site. At this time, underground mining was beginning the transition from rail-based equipment to mobile equipment. This experience gave him many insights into the problems workers faced underground and how equipment might be developed to provide a safer working environment.
He moved into equipment sales in 1967 and worked at Ingersol Rand in Montreal before moving to Thornbury where he worked for JMG Engineering developing equipment for underground mining.
In 1973, Don struck out on his own to form MacLean Engineering. The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, and has grown to over 1,200 employees across four continents.
“The 2025 inductees are exemplary pillars within the mineral exploration and mining community, each of whom has left a lasting legacy in advancing a more sustainable, responsible and prosperous industry,” said Deborah McCombe, chair of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, in a news release.
When asked how she thinks Don would have felt knowing his accomplishments were being recognized, Catherine said he was a humble man.
“He would have been proud but humbled by it,” she said.
For more information on the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, click here.
