The Voisey's Bay find changed Friedland's fortunes and those of shareholders--but added to his controversial reputation.

FORBES: The Promoter

Voisey's Bay turned out to be as much of a political minefield as a nickel deposit.

FORBES: The Promoter

Born in Chicago, he bought into penny mining stocks and pitched them on the Vancouver Stock Exchange--until prospectors of his Diamond Fields Resources looking for diamonds in Voisey's Bay, Newfoundland happened upon a vast nickel deposit.

FORBES: The Promoter

This was the case with the Cree over the massive James Bay hydroelectric dams in northern Quebec, the Innu over the Voisey's Bay nickel mine in Labrador, the Inuit over diamond mines in the Northwest Territories, and the 1999 creation of the new territory of Nunavut, the largest land-claim settlement in Canadian history.

ECONOMIST: Canada