Robert Stan

Robert Stan – President and CEO, Grande Cache Coal Corporation

In August 2004, Robert Stan’s Grande Cache Coal Corporation cleared its final regulatory hurdle with the provincial government.

The start of production at his $30-million facility marked a remarkable recovery for both the abandoned Smoky River mine – which produced metallurgical coal used to fuel the blast furnaces of steel mills – as well as the town of Grande Cache, about 360 kilometres west of Edmonton. Stan, who has worked in the Western Canadian coal patch since 1979, forecast the slump in metallurgical coal prices due to a worldwide steel glut that would soon end. By 2002, China’s insatiable appetite for steel proved Stan’s hunch right and his company emerged as a global player in the metallurgical coal market. After shepherding his new company through an initial public offering named as the best of 2004 by the Financial Post, Stan helped finalize a $162- million US deal in December to ship 1.3 million tonnes of metallurgical coal to South Korean and Japanese steelmakers. – WG

Is it tougher to gain the approval of the marketplace or government regulators as a mining company?

Regulatory approvals are such a critical part of the mining industry that every company must be particularly focused on that process. The market doesn’t want to know about you until you’ve satisfied the regulators.

Who do you think is the greatest Albertan ever?

That’s a tough one. I personally have always admired Peter Lougheed and everything that he’s done for the province.

In 100 years, will you warrant your own chapter in the history books, a footnote to great events or a single Google hit?

Maybe a single Google hit, but I’m sure it won’t be a chapter. What we’ve accomplished pales in comparison to what others in this province have accomplished.

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