The mining industry is facing no shortage of challenges, from sourcing talent to project delays to the cost of building new projects. A new generation of leadership is poised to find solutions to take the industry forward.

Few are more qualified to lead a conversation about the next generation of leadership than mining legend Pierre Lassonde, the Co-Founder of Franco-Nevada Corporation, former President of Newmont Mining Corporation and a pioneer of the gold royalty model. At the 35^th Annual BMO Global Mining, Metals & Critical Minerals Conference, Lassonde, currently the Chairman and CEO of Firelight Investments, took the stage alongside leaders from two family-run businesses. In both companies, each father had built a business before eventually handing down the task of running and growing it to their sons.

The “Future Leaders” panel featured:

• 

  Mathieu Gignac, President of G Mining Services, and his brother Louis-Pierre Gignac, Founder, President and CEO of G Mining Ventures

• 

  Adam Lundin, Chair of Lundin Mining Corporation, and his brother Jack Lundin, President and CEO of Lundin Mining Corporation.

Here’s what they learned along the way:

Both sets of siblings say their leadership styles were informed by what they witnessed growing up. The Gignac brothers were raised around mining camps in Northern Quebec and were already working underground by the time they turned 18 years old. The real lessons, Mathieu Gignac says, came from watching their father, Louis Gignac, lead Cambior at the time. Cambior was struggling financially and the brothers watched their father hold the team together through the worst of it.

After Cambior was acquired, Louis Gignac channeled that experience into something new, founding G Mining Services in 2006. “The situation was dire, the times were serious, but he always powered through,” Mathieu Gignac said.

For the Lundins, the defining moment came during the 2008 financial crisis. The family was in the process of selling Tanganyika Oil to Sinopec when prices, which had been above US$100 a barrel, were falling sharply. The deal was in jeopardy, but Adam Lundin says their father never wavered. “There was a lot of panic, but his optimism continued to shine through, and everyone rallied around that,” he says. “We were fortunate to get the deal closed and keep the rest of the businesses going.”

Those valuable lessons are now put into practice on a global scale. G Mining Services has led construction on multiple mine projects since 2014, earning a reputation for coming in on time and on budget. Mathieu Gignac traces the company’s success to its self-perform model, a philosophy inspired by years of working alongside his father. Instead of relying on outside contractors for critical work, the company brings everything in-house, from engineering and procurement to logistics and construction management.

“Self-performing is one of our secret sauces,” he says. “As soon as you give control of your project to a third party, they’re controlling your project.”

The Lundins are bringing similar principles to their biggest project yet, the $18-billion Vicuna copper venture in Argentina. Jack Lundin says the approach was shaped by an earlier collaboration with the Gignacs on Fruta del Norte, where Mathieu Gignac relocated to Ecuador with his family for more than three years to oversee construction firsthand. “The only way we’re going to be successful here is by having a team that’s all wearing the same jersey,” Jack Lundin said. “You can’t cut corners. You have to be realistic with what the capex is going to be, what the schedule is going to be.”

Louis‑Pierre Gignac drew a contrast between leaders who manage from a distance and those who stay closely engaged. “Things don’t get done from the office in Toronto or Montreal,” he says. “It’s on-the-ground, hands-on oversight and experience that gets results.”

Discussions about succession planning focus on finding the talent required to keep mines operating as well as who leads them. Mathieu Gignac says half of all electrical engineering positions in Quebec currently go unfilled, and G Mining Services has had to look internationally to fill the gap, building teams in Ecuador and Brazil to work alongside its Canadian engineers.

Over the next decade, Adam Lundin says the priority is setting a standard that attracts more capital and young people to the sector, while showing investors that mining is a place where they can earn strong returns and make a meaningful difference. “If you lead by example and other mining companies do the same, we can continue to be a beacon,” he said.

Jack Lundin says his family’s business has evolved over time from exploration into development and now into large-scale operations. The next chapter will be about finding creative ways to generate value. LunR was formed by carving out royalties from NGEx’s Los Helados and Lunahuasi projects, and then entering into a deal with Lundin Gold to purchase silver in the form of a streaming arrangement in exchange for Lundin Gold shareholders receiving shares of LunR.

“The best way to create meaningful value in the resource sector is pursuing good projects of scale and seeing them through exploration, into development and ultimately into operations,” he said.