Stewart Blusson

Stewart Lynn "Stu" Blusson, OC (born 1939) is a Canadian geologist, helicopter pilot, businessman and philanthropist. He co-discovered billion-dollar Ekati Diamond Mine, 300 kilometres from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. He is President of Archon Minerals Ltd. In 2002, Blusson donated key start-up funds necessary for Quest University Canada in Squamish, British Columbia. In 2006, Blusson donated $10 million for the Archon X PRIZE to develop a quick and inexpensive way to sequence the human genome. Blusson had a net worth of $660 million CDN in 2006.

Blusson was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He completed an undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia (1960) and a doctorate in geology at the University of California, Berkeley (1964).

After school, he joined the federal Geological Survey of Canada, leading regional geological mapping and research programs in the central Yukon and parts of British Columbia. During that time he survived a serious helicopter crash and a Grizzly bear attack. In 1969, Chuck Fipke, a geologist, needed to be rescued from the side of a mountain where he had been stranded for close to a week. Blusson was the helicopter pilot that saved him. From this first encounter, Fipke and Blusson became friends and prospecting partners.

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