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Duane Poliquin graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a degree in Geological Engineering in 1962, became a registered professional engineer in 1966, and ever since has been continuously active in mining exploration around the world. Duane started out with a large Canadian mining company and was soon involved in a major copper-zinc discovery. This was followed by work with several of the worlds largest base metal and gold companies in some of the most important mining areas of the world.
In 1971 Duane initiated a public company called Westley Mines Ltd. In 1972, believing gold would rise, Duane identified the Santa Fe property in Nevada as a potential bulk tonnage target and started Westley Mine Ltd. to explore it with an intial public offering in 1974. The property was placed in production as a heap leach operation by Corona Mines Ltd. which became part of Homestake Mines Ltd., and then Barrick. Other successful ventures were then discovery of an extension to the Nevada Sheelite Mine - which was placed into production that continued until a sharp drop in tungsten prices in the mid 1980's - and the identification, assembly, and intial development of the Apex germanium-gallium mine - a specialty metals deposit in Utah that contained over one million tons of mineralized material with a gross value of over $1,000 per ton. The property was vended to Musto Exploration Ltd., who placed the property into production in the late 1980's. Duane also indentified the La Trinidad gold deposit in Sinaloa state, Mexico, a high grade heap leachable gold deposit vended by Almaden Minerals Ltd. to Eldorado Gold Coporation, who placed it into production. Duane founded Almaden Resources Corporation in 1981 and has been actively working on gold and copper projects in Mexico and a diamond project in the NorthWest Territories. | 