Vladimir Mackiw
Vladimir Mackiw spent decades working at the forefront of mining and metallurgy
development, securing more than 40 patents and leaving an enduring stamp on the Canadian mining industry.
Mackiw was born in Stanislawiw, Western Ukraine, and studied chemistry at Universities of
Breslau and Erlangen, Germany, obtaining his MSc in 1948. He came to Canada in 1948, and shortly thereafter
joined Sherritt Gordon Mines in Ottawa as a research chemist.Mackiw quickly rose to a senior vice-president
position with Sherritt Gordon, and he assumed a comprehensive list of key industrial and commercial
projects.
Mackiws responsibilities with Sherritt Gordon covered a wide range of production areas,
including the metals division, nickel and cobalt refineries, rolling mill and coinage products, special metal
and chemical products, technology licensing, the research centre and engineering and maintenance services.
Mackiw subsequently moved to Fort Saskatchewan, and lead a team of gifted scientists and
engineers that made a number of significant research advances, developing and patenting processes and
technologies that were licensed for use in metallurgical plants around the globe.
The early work done by his research group established pressure hydrometallurgical
process technology as both clean and economical for a number of Canadian base metals including nickel,
cobalt, copper, zinc, refractory gold and uranium.
Mackiw was a member of the National Research Council from 1971 to 1977; a member of the
National Advisory Committee on Mining and Metallurgical Research (NACMMR) for the Minister of Mines, Energy
and Resources, from 1973 to 1979; and from 1984 to 1986, was the Chair of Nickel Development Institute
(NIDI).
His contributions in extractive metallurgy, hydrometallurgy and powder metallurgy
earned him many Canadian and international professional and academic honors, including induction into
the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.
Vladimir Mackiw passed away on 31 January 2001.
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