![]() She was the spouse of the President of Argentina (Juan Peron) and had developed cancer. The ambassador to Canada from Argentina was in London at an inaugural event and was hoping to place an order for a Cobalt machine to save Evita Peron’s life. This offered a new exciting treatment option: ‘healing rays’ over invasive surgery.Ī patient prepares to receive Cobalt-60 radiation for a tumour. The compact Cobalt source was highly radioactive and could be placed in a machine designed to irradiate tumours with external beams of radiation in reasonable time (minutes). As an alternative, Cobalt-60 could be produced artificially by bombarding natural Cobalt-59 with a high-flux of neutrons in Chalk River’s new NRX reactor – a unique enabling technology available only in Canada at the time. Natural Radium-226 had been proposed to solve this issue but its mining was painstakingly inefficient and too costly the level of radioactivity that could be extracted limited the ‘dose rate’ achievable from a radium treatment machine – radiation treatment times would be intolerable for patients. This was the first major advancement in the radiation treatment of all cancers, aside from skin cancer, since Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895. ![]() The development of Cobalt-60 radiation therapy opened a treatment window into the human body and, for the very first time in history, we were able to treat deep-seated tumours without harming the skin. However, the first treatment of patients was delayed past the London date by a few weeks, much to the ongoing chagrin of the Saskatoon team. Harold Johns, duly credited as the ‘inventor’ of Cobalt machines. Pioneering physics development had taken place there under the leadership of Dr. Ivan Smith, a Department of Therapeutic Radiology professor at The University of Western Ontario and Cancer Clinic director at Victoria Hospital.Īnother Cobalt-60 source had arrived earlier at the Saskatoon Cancer Clinic. Just a little over a week later, its widely publicized first medical use took place under the clinical direction of Dr. London’s radioactive source was pre-calibrated by staff of the National Research Council and first installed at Victoria Hospital on Oct. We look forward to Dave's many contributions to the Electra team,” said Mell.Revolutionizing cancer treatment throughout the world and serving as an excellent example of highly effective patient-oriented translational research, the Cobalt-60 radiation technology, nicknamed the Eldorado ‘Cobalt Bomb’, was developed by physicist and engineers at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and the Eldorado Mining Company. “Dave's first project with Electra will be completion of the Quebec study to determine the viability of a battery materials refinery in Bécancour. Most recently, he was a project manager with BBA Consultants. Marshall was also project director for the Copper Cliff Mine South Shaft project, a project aimed at reconditioning and refurbishing existing mine workings to support future operations. He spent 29 years with Vale in a number of senior project management roles, including project director for the Sudbury Clean AER project, a C$1-billion project with a 1 000-person team aimed at reducing sulphur dioxide and metals particulate emissions from existing operations in Sudbury. Marshall is a 31-year industry veteran with extensive experience in engineering studies, project management and project delivery for mineral processing and mining operations. In support of the announcement and the upcoming study, Electra appointed David Marshall as VP for engineering. Electra's study is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. In support of the preliminary discussions the company has undertaken with the government of Québec, Electra will undertake a study to determine yearly production requirements for the industrial park, capital costs for the refinery, flow sheet modifications for alternate sources of feed material, permitting requirements, synergies from integration with other battery material companies in Bécancour, and potential funding opportunities from the federal and provincial levels of government.Įarlier this year, the Canadian government earmarked C$3.8-billion towards the development of a Critical Minerals Strategy.
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