The family of William Quesnel announced the founder of the Quesnel Group and General Magnesium Corporation both with offices in Whitney Township in east Timmins died on May 8, 2016 from complications of a massive stroke in February from which he never recovered.
The announcement was made in Perth, Ontario where the family resided. William Quesnel, grew up in Timmins and has a degree in geology from the University of Waterloo.
He has worked at Kidd Creek in Timmins and with LAC Minerals (now Barrick Gold). He has also worked in Nicaragua, Argentina, Venezuela and Chile.
Quesnel was more than a mining company CEO. He was a visionary that saw the potential for creating a magnesium based economic cluster in Timmins by inviting auto manufacturers to locate and manufacture in the area and transport auto parts around the world.
Moving to make that vision a reality, Quesnel in November announced the signing of two deals that would assure the production of magnesium, talc and magnesite for the next 15 years.
The first, signed on November 1, 2015 was with Hunter Douglas Metals, of Illinois. The deal was for a reported $4.9 billion to provide Hunter Douglas, a manufacturer of hard plastic products (plastic window blinds) with a supply of magnesium for the next 15 years.
GMC has a stockpile of about 50,000 tonnes of ore containing magnesium, talc and magnetite during its advanced exploration stage. Processing of the ore and delivery to Hunter Douglas Metal could start by June, 2016, according to William Quesnel’s statement last November.
In mid-November, Quesnel announced the signing of a second agreement with Abbey Gold for processing the ore.
The future of General Magnesium Corporation has been up in the air since February when Quesnel had the stroke.
Many in Timmins have hoped GMC’s operation could create employment to offset the recent job loss due to the Dome Underground Mine closure and the impending closure of Kidd Creek in 2021.
In early November, 2015 William Quesnel announced a third deal announced by Quesnel was with investment firm Haywood Securities to transition GMC into a public share corporation with its shares publicly.
GMC had planned to hold a job fair in the first quarter of 2016 to fill up to 200 positions for its June 2016 start-up. Over the life span of the magnesium-talc operations 1,000 jobs could be generated, according to past statements made by William Quesnel.
Geological reports developed for the Quesnel Group said there Whitney Township property has enough resources to last 100 years.
The vastness of the supply and the demand for more energy efficient automobiles built increasing with lighter, hard plastic products could turn Timmins into an economic cluster for magnesium-talc based auto parts.
According to GMC’s NI 43-101 resource estimate its site contains about 100 million tonnes, with 54,076,357 tonnes in the measured and indicated category, and 43,000,000 tonnes in the inferred category.
At this moment, the future of General Magnesium Corporation is still uncertain. Whether the will continue to move forward on William Quesnel’s vision, wind up the corporation or sell it.
Since Quesnel suffered his stroke, Ryan Quesnel who has assumed the titles of President and CEO has not returned media calls.
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