For McEwen, the contest itself was a gold mine. "We have drilled four of the winners' top five targets and have hit on all four," he says. "But what's really important is that from a remote site, the winners were able to analyze a database and generate targets without ever visiting the property. It's clear that this is part of the future."

Between the new high-grade discoveries and the mine's modernized facilities, Red Lake is finally performing along the lines that McEwen had envisioned. In 1996, Red Lake was producing at an annual rate of 53,000 ounces at $360 an ounce. By 2001, the mine was producing 504,000 ounces at $59 an ounce. On the open market, gold currently trades for about $307 an ounce. The grade of the ore at McEwen's mine is extraordinarily high, confirming his suspicion that the vein that ran through the neighboring mine continues through Red Lake.

For McEwen, whose passion for gold is evident from the 82-pound sample rock containing 300 ounces of gold that he displays in his office and the dazzling gold, diamond, and lapis wedding ring that he sports on his finger, it doesn't get much better than this. "When you first pick up a piece of gold and hold it in your hand, when you feel the weight and see the luster, you feel like this is something special," McEwen says. "It's different than mining coal."

Contact Rob McEwen by email (rrmcewen@attglobal.net). To learn more about all of the Fast 50 winners, click here.

Sidebar: Nuggets of Wisdom

Red Lake, Ontario and West Perth, Australia are at opposite ends of the earth. But that didn't stop Nick Archibald and his team of geologists at Fractal Graphics, an Australian geoscience consulting firm, from thinking that they could find gold in Canada.

First-place winners of the 2001 Goldcorp Challenge, Archibald and his mates shared a grand prize of $105,000 for their presentation detailing likely targets for finding gold. "I'd never been to the mine," Archibald says. "I'd never even been to Canada."

But when he learned of the contest, Archibald recognized an opportunity for his company, which specializes in the production of 3-D models of mines. The prize money was appealing, but Archibald knew that winning would give a boost to his own hopes for expansion funds as well. "Our industry has been going through a hard time," he says. "We had been trying to raise venture capital. Any positive news could only be a big help for us."

Although the prize money, which Archibald's team shared with Taylor Wall & Associates, barely covered the cost of the project, the publicity has boosted the firm's business. "It would have taken us years to get the recognition in North America that this project gave us overnight," he says.

More important, Archibald adds, the Challenge has opened the industry's eyes to a new way of doing exploration. "This has been a big change for mining," he says. "This has been like a beacon in a sea of darkness."