To say mining runs in Theodore Keats' family is a vast understatement. Not only did Mr. Keats participate in many exploits and finds in Newfoundland prospecting, including deposits at Duck Brook, Beaver Brook and Point Leamington, but all his sons and many of his grandchildren also are involved in the business.
His grandfather, a Mi'kmaq named Suley Joe, was famous for having found, and then lost, a silver mine.
Mr. Keats died on Feb. 4 at the age of 90.
Peter Dimmell, a mineral exploration consultant and past president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada who knew him throughout his career, explains the role of the prospector: "They go out in the field. Usually specific areas we pick. The government does a lot of regional surveys, and we acquire the area through concessions or staking.
"I say prospectors have an advantage over geologists because they're stupid, they don't know scientifically what to look for. They look in all the wrong places and find all the right stuff. They just go out, and see something different, and bang on it, smack it with a hammer. That's how these guys worked.
"It's a sixth sense. You go in the woods, and all the rocks look the same. But for some reason one looks different to these guys. And they break it."
Ted Keats was born on Oct. 19, 1919, in Port Blandford, Nfld., the youngest of four children of Robert and Emiline. His father died when he was 2, and Mr. Keats began working in the woods and on the land from a very early age. He didn't go to school, and never learned to read or write. Instead he culled a living from rural Newfoundland, where he could turn his hand to many tasks, from trapping to boat building.
Among other occupations, he was a woods contractor, and cut pulpwood for Bowater.
"He was not afraid of work," said his grandson Kevin Keats, CEO of Golden Dory Resources. He said his grandfather was a shrewd businessman, and able to learn a lot, and quickly, from technicians and geologists. Ever adaptable, Ted Keats was 50 when he entered the field of mineral exploration.
In 1969, Noranda Explorations opened an office in Gander. Mr. Keats and his son Allan thought the company might be interested in the lost silver mine.
"I worked for Noranda in Gander then," Mr. Dimmell said. "That fall, when Ted and Al came in to the Noranda Exploration office, they wanted to see the district geologist, Ron Hawkes. They told him the story of Suley Joe's lost silver mine."
Mr. Hawkes was intrigued by the story, but it wasn't something Noranda could practically pursue. "But prospectors we could use," Mr. Dimmell said. Mr. Hawkes offered to "grubstake" them, provide some money and supplies and logistical support.
Noranda gave them $250 each, loaded them and a canoe in a floatplane, and flew them to the upper Terra Nova River.
"They spent a month, month and a half, and came out mid-November," Mr. Dimmell said. "They shot caribou when they needed something to eat, caught rabbits. The boys were used to living off the land. They came out by canoe and they came in with some interesting rocks."
Noranda later flew in to investigate and confirmed finds of mineralization. Later, Mr. Keats trained as a geophysical operator.
What became Duck Pond copper-zinc mine was first discovered in the early 1970s one evening after supper. (Duck Pond is still operational today.)
This seemingly casual way of making discoveries proved productive.
"In 1971, doing silt surveys in back of Grand Falls, around New Bay Ponds, Dad would load grandfather up like a pack mule, front and back," said Kevin Keats. "He'd change camp while Dad did the survey."
Allan Keats would notice, for example, a different rock in an unusually low river bed. Or he'd spot an oddity in a piece of rock that had been cracked by ice (this was how he and his father found the Point Leamington copper-zinc deposit).
After several years of prospecting, where his significant finds included several sites of massive sulphides, Ted Keats elected to work as camp cook. "He wanted to be in the woods and he wanted to be with his sons," Mr. Dimmell said. All four were working with him by then, and two, Fred and Calvin, would later work as far afield as South America, Indonesia and Australia.
Mr. Keats' children married into the Stares, Crocker, Barrett and Smith families, all linked to mining and prospecting. The business continues to span generations.
"Ted Keats was the patriarch of the province's first family of prospecting," Mr. Dimmell said.
"From that [1969 trip]came the legacy," said Kevin Keats. "Now it's the third generation, 21 of us, and this is what we do. I've been to Mexico and Peru. Not one of us has a post-secondary education. But four of us are CEOs of publicly traded companies on TSX Venture."
Mr. Keats liked a game of cards (120s), and liked a drink (Old Sam). He was independent, industrious, adventurous and generous. He cared little for money and put his family first.
His work earned national recognition. In March, 2006, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada gave the Bill Dennis Prospector of the Year award to the Keats-Stares family. And Mr. Keats' death was acknowledged by Newfoundland's acting premier and Minister of Resources Kathy Dunderdale who recognized the "outstanding contributions" he and his family have made to the provincial mining industry.
Meanwhile, the search for Suley Joe's lost silver mine continues.
Ted Keats
Ted Keats was born in Port Blandford, Nfld., on Oct. 19, 1919. He died in Gander on Feb. 4, 2010. Predeceased by his wife Annie Greening in 1987, he leaves his sons Suley, Allan, Fred, and Calvin, daughters Geraldine, Effie, Kathleen, Madeline, and Eileen, and 114 grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.