Robert M. Buchan is a Scottish-Canadian mining engineer, businessman and philanthropist. He founded Kinross Gold in 1993.[1] It is now the 3rd-largest gold mining company in North America.
Brought up in Rosyth, Fife, Buchan graduated with a 1st class honours degree in Mining from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh in 1969. He earned a master's degree of Science in Mining Engineering from Queen's University in 1972.[2]
In 2009 he gave £6 million to his Canadian alma mater, Queen's University, in Kingston, Ontario, to fund mining education and, in his honor, the university renamed the Mining Engineering department the Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining.[3] In September 2010 it was announced that Buchan was donating £1.3 million to his Scottish alma mater, to fund their work sustainable energy engineering, the largest donation the university has ever received from an individual.[4] He has also donated £650,000 to help establish the Whitlock Energy Collaboration Centre at Carnegie College in Fife.[citation needed]