He is a legend in his field, pure and simple. The Timmins prospector extraordinaire, John Larche is probably best known as a member of the team that made the major Canadian gold discovery of the 1980s: the Hemlo Deposit.
"It created new wealth for Canada as a whole and has created a lot of jobs, in fact thousands of people (were hired over the) years," Larche said recently in an interview for the Northern Icon profile. "The mine has been operating for some time now and it's starting to slow down a bit."
But Larche is much more to the Timmins community than a mythical legend from which tales of adventure, danger and gold are told and retold. Larche is a community leader and maintains a seat on the board of directors for Tres-Or Resources, a junior diamond company with property in Temagami North. But most of all Larche is a great fishing buddy.
"We're profoundly proud of the leadership John shows in our community, and profoundly proud of his accomplishments on all fronts and we consider John not only a great leader, we consider him a great friend and fishing buddy," said David McGirr, explaining Larche is one member of a strong fishing foursome.
As one of the co-finders of Hemlo Gold Deposit, Larche struck it rich, literally, when after 20 years of studying the Hemlo area and dreaming, he and his partners Don McKinnon and David Bell uncovered the deposit of a lifetime.
"Don and I staked approximately 150, 40 acre claims in the first year. We had raised a grubstake from two businessmen we eventually got a deal (from) and it was diamond drill hole number 76 that was the discovery hole that resulted in the multi-billion dollar ore bodies," Larche said.
Thinking back on the experience after so many years, of finally striking gold, "I felt good about it. I felt I had beaten the odds and got involved in something commercial," Larche said.
The legend got his start in mining exploration in 1943, working on diamond drills and underground at the Preston East Dome Mine. He became an independent prospector in the 1950s and was involved with numerous staking rushes, including Mattagami in the 50s, Kidd Township in the 1960s and finally Hemlo. In 1979, the Crown reverted claims in the Hemlo area, and Larche and McKinnon staked claim to the area in the traditional manner. From 1985 to 1991, the Golden Giant mine in the Hemlo area produced 2.3 million ounces of gold.
It was the discovery of their lives and it made them rich. But Larche was quick to point out, it created great wealth for the province and hundreds of jobs for the region. Over the years Larche has used his personal success and wealth to improve his community.
Larche has been a major benefactor of the Timmins and District Hospital and is such s profound leader in the project that an entire wing of the hospital has been named after him.
Some of Larche's most prized accomplishments is the time he spent as president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, along with the 15 years he was president of the Porcupine branch. He also loves to remind everyone he's been a bush pilot for more than 45 years. Larche's life and prospecting successes have also been documented in a book released last year "On the Rocks: John Larche and the pursuit of the Dreamfields."
The book begins with Larche's early years in Blind River and Maniwaki areas working selling newspapers and time in the logging industry, and follows him to his time working in war industries plants in Southern Ontario and then his adventures in mining prospecting. Asked how he feels about having a book written about his life, Larche is a little hesitant.
"I guess that's pretty good," he said. "John is a great leader and he's also very humble," McGirr added. "It took a few of us a significant amount of time, many fishing trips and golf outings to convince John of the importance of the book."
Larche has dedicated all the proceeds of the book to the Timmins and District Hospital towards the purchase of a $1.1 million nuclear medicine camera for the John P. Larche Medical Imaging and Cardiopulmonary Department. "That's just the way John is," McGirr said.
