Karl Brooks Heisey

Karl Brooks Heisey (b.1895 Markham, Ontario d. 7 December 1937 Toronto, Ontario) was a well-known Canadian mining engineer and mining executive in the 1930s. Heisey pioneered the exploration and development of the Sanshaw/Red Lake metal deposits located in northwest Ontario in the 1930s. The Red Lake Mine is one of the richest gold mines in the world, still in production today with annual production of 600,000 ounces gold and over 11 million ounces produced to date.

Heisey was the son of farmers, Jacob Heisey and Ida Lehman and was raised in the Township of Markham, Ontario. He enlisted in the Signal Corps of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1916, during the First World War. Heisey joined the Royal Flying Corps Canada as a Cadet, flying out of Camp Borden, Ontario, and was demobilized at the end of the war as a Royal Air Force Second Lieutenant. Heisey obtained a bachelor's degree in Applied Science from the College of Applied Science (Mining) at the University of Toronto in 1922. He was married to Alice Isabel Smith (1895-1968) in 1927.

As both a highly experienced pilot and mining engineer Heisey was well positioned to participate in the Red Lake and Kirkland Lake Gold Rushes in northern Ontario in the 1930s. Red Lake was inaccessible by road until 1947 when Ontario Highway 105 was constructed and the only access prior to then was by boat or plane. Kirkland Lake had no road access until 1937.

Heisey engaged in geological surveys for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources between 1919 and 1922 in Kirkland Lake and West Shinintree and conducted magnetic surveys for discovery of gold with pyrrhotite iron.

Following this, Heisey worked as an engineer with Argonaut Mines, Kirkland Lake from 1922 to 1923. In 1924 he was appointed chief engineer of Tough Oakes Gold Mines and the same year he joined the Mond Nickel Company as exploration engineer in the Quebec field. Heisey opened his own office in Kirkland Lake in 1928, coming to Toronto in 1930.

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