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Canada loses a pioneer Gerald Hatch built one of the world’s most successful mining and metallurgical engineering firms By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco Gerald Hatch, one of Canada’s most innovative metallurgical engineers and business leaders, died on June 9, 2014,
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one month shy of his 92nd birthday. Although his death seems to have fallen under the radar of most mainstream
media, it marks a great loss to Canada and its mining industry. Hatch, according to all who knew him, was a giant in his professional career, while remaining a modest, gentle and remarkable human being. “Gerry had the depth of character to reach great heights in his personal and business life,” said Kurt Strobele, current chairman of the Hatch Group of Companies, the 59-year-old engineering consulting firm founded by Gerry Hatch that today has more than 11,000 employees in 65 offices on six continents. “He set the stage for a lot of engineering developments in Canada, particularly in relation to metallurgy,” said Gord Irons, director of the Steel Research Centre at McMaster University. Working with Falcondo in the Dominican Republic in the 1970s, Hatch designed an innovative commercial plant that revolutionized the productivity of ferronickel production. He co-patented two design features of the electric smelting furnaces that have since been incorporated into Hatch’s successful furnace technology business, along with numerous other innovations. Hatch also contributed to sustainability in the mining and metals industry through his leadership of the Sulphur Dioxide Abatement programs for Inco and Falconbridge in Sudbury, Ontario, and Noranda Mines in Noranda, Quebec. Hatch’s design enabled sulphur dioxide collection and conversion to saleable sulphuric acid. These projects significantly reduced acid rain caused by metals refining in Eastern Canada. Although Hatch retired as the company’s president in 1988 and its chairman in 1990, the structure he created for Hatch to this day continues to positively impact its employees while playing an integral role in its ongoing success. With the clarity of an engineer’s mind in combination with his passion