New book profiles a Canadian mining pioneer who got caught up in a business scandal

Author Tim Falconer hopes his new book will make more Canadians aware of Viola MacMillan, a mining industry pioneer who became embroiled in scandal near the end of her career.

"She was really a remarkable woman," said Falconer, whose book Windfall: Viola MacMillan and Her Notorious Mining Scandal, hits store shelves on Feb. 18.

MacMillan was born on a farm in Muskoka and became interested in mineral exploration after one of her brothers started working at a mine in the northern Ontario town of Cobalt.

She started prospecting with her husband, George MacMillan, in the 1920s, at a time when it was nearly unheard of for a woman to work in mining.

"By the late 1940s, she had her first producing mine," Falconer said. "And then in the 1950s, she was really successful and had a series of mines."

Falconer says MacMillan had a knack for the business side of mining, and made millions of dollars through the mines that she and her husband owned.

In 1944, she was elected president of the Ontario Prospectors and Developers Association, and held that position for 20 years, until she became embroiled in a mining investment scandal.

The association is now known as the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) and hosts one the world's largest annual mining conferences.

In the early 1960s, the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company bought a number of mining stakes in Timmins, Ont., that went on to become the Kidd Creek Mine for copper, zinc and silver. The mine is still operating today.

Falconer says they missed four stakes through an error, and the MacMillans were able to purchase those instead.

They created a company called Windfall, which traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1964.

"All of a sudden, the rumours started that Windfall had something," Falconer said.

MacMillan and her husband did nothing to dispel those rumours, and the Windfall stock surged from around $0.50 to $5.70.

It later turned out their staked land didn't have anything of value, and the stock crashed. But before that crash, MacMillan made $1.5 million selling some of her shares.

Falconer says that led to some reforms at the Toronto Stock Exchange and Ontario Securities Commission to ensure more transparency from mining companies.

The incident also led to a royal commission.

The MacMillans were eventually acquitted of fraud, but she was found guilty of "wash trading" in another incident.

Wash trading is the practice of essentially trading a stock with yourself, or companies you own, to make it look like authentic transactions are happening, and there's genuine interest in the stock.

Viola MacMillan was sentenced to nine months in prison, but ended up serving nine weeks.

In 1978, she received a full pardon for that conviction

She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1992, and died the next year at the age of 90.

Falconer says he hopes his book can bring more attention to her story.

"Why don't more people know about her?" he said. "She was the most successful businesswoman in Canada for many years."