Ed Balon (b.1946)
	
Ed Balon was born at Three lakes, Saskatchewan. He worked at forestry, construction and mineral processing before returning to school for a diploma in mining engineering from Northern College-Haileybury School of Mines in 1970. After graduation he worked through British Columbia, Yukon and NWT as a geological technician, prospector and field manager for Cordilleran Engineering. From 1996 to 2007 he worked for Fairfield Minerals Ltd. and Almaden Minerals Ltd. on projects along the cordillera through Mexico. Balon and Mike Hamilton played key roles in the discovery of three significant mineral discoveries in the Yukon.(("Pair enters prospectors' hall of fame." //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 19 November 2014.)) 

The Goz Creek deposit, located 180 km northwest of Mayo, consisted of ninety mineral claims in 2014. Historic estimates suggest more than 294 million kg of zinc on the site. The Logtung deposit is the largest undeveloped tungsten molybdenum deposit of its kind in the world. It remains undeveloped because it is low grade. The Logan deposit northwest of Watson Lake was discovered in 1979 and extensive diamond drilling between 1979 and 1988 found more than twelve million tonnes of zinc and silver. Balon was most often in a helicopter plotting sample points on a map and dropping down to creeks and rivers where he would collect a sample. He and colleagues did high density sampling, about one sample per one square km. At Logan he found a rusty patch on top of the soil. It is rare to make three significant discoveries and he found three in the Yukon alone. ((Myles Dolphin, "Yukon prospectors recognized for important mineral discoveries." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 21 November 2014.)) 

Balon and Hamilton also discovered the silver/lead/zinc Silvertip (Midway) deposit in northern British Columbia and zinc/lead deposits at Gayna River in the NWT and at Robb Lake in north-eastern British Columbia. Balon semi-retired in 2007 with occasional prospecting trips. In 2014, Ed Balon and Mike Hamilton were inducted into the Yukon Prospectors Hall of Fame in recognition of the three discoveries they and others at Cordilleran Engineering made during the 1970s.(("Pair enters prospectors' hall of fame." //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 19 November 2014.))