Wasyl Kunda: Mining and Metallurgy

Wasyl Kunda spent nearly thirty years with Sherritt Gordon Mines Ltd, researching a number of metallurgical processes that went on to become standard practices in the industry of mining and metallurgy.

Wasyl was born in western Ukraine, and worked very hard in school to get a graduate degree in chemistry from the University of Prague before immigrating to Canada in 1948.

Once Wasyl landed in Canada, he began his career with Sherritt Gordon in 1951 in Ottawa. Later, Wasyl moved to a newly opened nickel refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. Wasyl began to experiment, trying to recover nickel from sulphide-based ores.

In 1961, Wasyl’s employers noticed his hard work and inventiveness and he was eventually named head of Sherritt Gordon’s research department.

His research focused on metal and ore processing, and his name is included on a long list of patents granted to Sherritt Gordon, including methods to produce nickel, cobalt and copper powders that are used in a variety of industrial jobs.

Kunda received a number of professional honours in his career, including being named a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada.

After retiring from Sherritt Gordon, Kunda worked with Terra Mines on research to recover silver from arsenic-bearing ores. He also researched other methods of silver recovery, working with Thomas Etsell at the University of Alberta. Etsell and Kunda patented their silver recovery from photographic waste method in the early 1990s.

Kunda died in 1997, at the age of 84.

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