FAMOUS FOR Her union-busting style. The former Royal Oak CEO weathered a bitter 18-month strike-lockout at the company's Giant Mine in Yellowknife in 1992. A week after an angry employee set a blast that killed nine miners, Witte reopened the mine, saying "This is survival. I'm not in business to be screwed over." Two years later, she made an audacious run at Lac Minerals Ltd., a gold producer four times Royal Oak's size. Witte lost that one to Barrick Gold.
THE BIG UH-OH Plummeting metal prices and liabilities of $600 million pushed the company into bankruptcy. Witte was among those sued by Arctic Precious Metals Inc., Royal Oak's U.S. subsidiary, for allegedly raiding the coffers days before the company filed for receivership. The case was settled in 2000, letting Royal Oak's management off the hook.
WHERE SHE IS NOW "I miss Toronto and I miss King and Bay, but I've decided to make a business here on the West Coast," she says. At 48, Witte-who now uses her maiden name, Kent-is chairman and CEO of Eden Roc, a Seattle-based minerals company now closing a deal to acquire Ferry Brothers, a Washington-based meat packaging facility.
WHY MEAT? "There isn't any joy out there in the mining world," she says. "In the last 18 months, Eden Roc looked at 120 mining prospects and did due diligence on at least 30 sites. We couldn't find a deal that would make it. I have a background in the cattle business-I own a 2,000-acre ranch in Nevada-and so we thought about going into meat packing." From one union-heavy industry to another? "It's a tough business," Witte admits. "I may not find meat packing easy. But after being in mining, I won't find it any harder."