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Canadian Mining History

Margaret’s Museum (British/Canadian Coal Mining Movie – 1995) – Review by Janet Maslin (New York Times – February 7, 1997)

 

http://www.nytimes.com/

Finding Signs of Hardy Life in Tough Surroundings

With a strong and colorful sense of its Nova Scotia setting, ”Margaret’s Museum” describes life in a remote coal mining community. It’s an existence that the film’s reckless, earthy heroine knows all too well. Rough-hewn Margaret MacNeil, played spiritedly by Helena Bonham Carter, has lost a father and brother to ”the pit,” as the miners call it.

And she works as a scrubwoman in the village hospital. Periodically throughout the film, which is set in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, alarm bells sound as the hospital staff braces for new accident victims from underground.

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CANADA MINING HISTORY: Gold, Greed and Glory – by John Stackhouse (Report on Business Magazine – November 1990)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

High in the Skeena Mountains of northern British Columbia, Ron Netolitzky stands nervously atop a 90-metre bluff. Netolitsky is a geologist from the Prairies, utterly out of his element. “I’m afraid of a 10-foot stepladder,” he confides. From the grassy peak, he surveys the remote river valleys and snow-capped mountains that lie 200 kilometers south of the Yukon border.

The only movement in sight is a heard of mountain goats on the next ridge. Summoning his courage, Netolitzky pulls a hammer out of his pocket and cautiously skates down the rust-coloured slope towards his latest mineral discovery.

To the untrained eye, all the rocks sliding underfoot look the same. But partway down, Netolitzky stops, cracks open a chunk of porphyry with his hammer and spits on the inside. After rubbing the sample clean, he wipes his hand on the same pair of ripped, orange coveralls he’s been wearing in the bush for eight years. “There,” he says, studing the core with an eyeglass. “That’s copper. And where there’s copper, you stand a good chance of finding gold.”

Put that way, it all sounds so simple. But the Skeenas, alongside the Alaska Panhandle, have been a formidable shield against prospectors and miners. The surrounding 20,000 square kilometres is known invitingly as the Golden Triangle, but it is an inhospitable place of dense spuce forest, stubborn glaciers, thick muskeg and towering cliffs formed 200 million years ago.

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Bill passed to provide $270m for SE Alaska mines – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – May 6, 2014)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Alaska State Legislature has unanimously passed Senate Bill 99 (SB 99), which includes provisions authorising the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) to make up to $270-million available for infrastructure and construction costs at two south-east Alaska mining projects.

The passing of the Bill provides TSX-V-listed Prince of Wales Island project developers Ucore Rare Metals and Heatherdale Resources with the state-backed financial boost needed to develop the deposits into mines amid an otherwise tight financial market.

Introduced by Senator Lesil McGuire in 2013, SB 99 also aims to clarify ambiguous language associated with the Sustainable Energy Transmission and Supply Development Fund within the AIDEA. The AIDEA is a public corporation created by Alaska lawmakers to promote economic development across the state, and has been active in the financing of multiple capital project initiatives in the Alaska mining sector since 1985.

The Delong Mountain Transportation System, a road and port facility connecting the isolated Red Dog mine to world markets, and the Skagway Ore Terminal, a south-east Alaska facility that ships about 37-million pounds of copper concentrates from Capstone Mining’s Minto mine, in Canada’s Yukon Territory, are examples of mining-related projects the authority has funded.

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The so-called “Great Strike” really was a lockout, part 2 – by T.W. Paterson (The Citizen – September 11, 2013)

http://www.canada.com/news/index.html [Cowichan Valley Citizen]

Premier Richard McBride, who doubled as Minister of Mines, thought it “intolerable” that the strikers should make demands upon the mine owners. Coal mining is a dangerous business at best. But Vancouver Island mines were said to be among the most dangerous in the world for cave-ins, explosions, floods and fires.

The human cost, over 90 years of operation, was appalling: 640 miners killed in Nanaimo-area mines, almost 300 more in the Cumberland colliery. Those who died of their injuries later, sometimes much later, went unrecorded.

The B.C. government had recognized these hazards, particularly that of gas explosion, when it passed the Coal Mines Act of 1911 which stated that, upon the presence of gas or other life threatening hazards being reported to management, the mine, or the section of the mine in question, was to be closed until the problem was rectified.

When Oscar Mottishaw and Isaac Portrey, members of a gas committee, reported five gas emissions in Extension No. 2 Mine on June 15, 1912, it cost Mottishaw, who was known to be an organizer for the newly arrived United Mine Workers of America, his job and he sought employment with a contractor in another Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Ltd. mine in Cumberland.

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The so-called ‘Great Strike’ really was a lockout, part 1 – by T.W. Paterson (The Citizen – September 6, 2013)

http://www.canada.com/news/index.html [Cowichan Valley Citizen]

It devastated families, divided communities, set trade unionism on the Island back by more than a decade and left memories – for many, bitter, bitter memories – that survived for several generations.

August 2013. As you stand in brilliant late summer sunshine at Ladysmith’s First and French Streets, you’re surrounded by busy traffic, neat and well-maintained businesses, the historic Eagles’ Hall and some roadside artifacts dating from this 49th parallel city’s heyday as a shipping port for coal from the Extension mines.

It taxes your imagination to picture this intersection as it would have appeared in August 1913.

That’s when Ladysmith was a city besieged, having been placed under the equivalent of martial law by order of the provincial government. That’s when the Eagles Hall was headquarters to hundreds of armed soldiers, uniformed policemen and civvies-clad special constables who patrolled these very streets amid sand-bagged machine gun emplacements while on the lookout for, and often provoking, confrontations with hundreds of angry, striking coal miners.

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Punched out by low blows – by Russell Noble (Canadian Mining Journal – June/July 2013)

The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication providing information on Canadian mining and exploration trends, technologies, operations, and industry events.

Now that the “Annual Report” season is almost over and shareholders are wondering “What the hell happened?” it’s time to look forward and talk about the Canadian mining industry in general and why it’s still a good place to invest.

First of all, as we all know, mining has always been subject to a good beating every once in a while and so far this year, many com¬panies (especially those involved with gold) have been literally pummeled into submission.
Historically, many companies suc¬cumb to the harsh blows of falling prices and rising costs while others, thankfully, dust themselves off and regroup by tak¬ing a serious look at what went wrong.

In many cases, getting ‘punched out’ of the business is the result of something that’s beyond control and unfortunately, it’s something that’s becoming far too common for mining companies.

Losing a fight because of poor planning and incompetent management is one thing, but to be counted out because of dirty tac¬tics is criminal and that’s what I think is partly to blame for more and more compa¬nies going broke.

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Jansen project seeking green light from BHP board – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – April 15, 2013)

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Saskatchewan’s giant Jansen potash project seems just a signature away from final approval, but don’t hold your breath on a decision from the board of BHP Billiton Ltd.

The world’s largest miner is working on the production and service shafts, which are the longest lead items of potash-mine development. The $14-billion project still needs a green light on design engineering after deciding to double initial output on Jansen.

“We are finalizing this design engineering as part of the Jansen project feasibility study, which will be presented to the BHP Billiton board,” said company spokesman Ruban Yogarajah. “While this occurs, we will finish building the camp and continue shaft excavation and site preparation.”

Once built, Jansen is expected to be the world’s largest potash mine, dwarfing even those of BHP’s nearest rival, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., which has mines nearby.

The mine, set in flat prairie lands about 150 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon, is a bet by BHP Billiton that potash, a crop nutrient, will become the world’s most important mined commodity as global food demand rises with new demand from emerging economies, where increasing affluence is changing eating habits.

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The Hemlo Gold Story – CBC Documentary

 

Just off the trans-Canada highway, half way between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie, near the highway to Marathon, Don Mckinnon, John Larche and David Bell discovered Ontario’s fourth largest mining camp, Hemlo, in 1981.

A fierce legal battle errupted over the ownership of one of three mines – the Williams – between Teck-backed junior miner Corona and Lac Minerals. In August 1989, the Supreme Court of Ontario awarded the property to Teck and Corona. Over the past 25 years the Hemlo camp has produced 21 million ounces of gold.

For a good historical overview of Ontario gold mining by Sudbury Star mining columnist Stan Sudol, please click here: Northern Ontario: A Golden Klondike – 192 million ounces of gold and counting

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Thank you, Stompin’ Tom Connors. We needed you – Globe and Mail Editorial (March 7, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Stompin Tom Connors’ Mining Songs: http://republicofmining.com/2013/01/21/stompin-tom-connors-wiki-profile-and-mining-songs/

He wore a cowboy hat and banged his heavy-heeled cowboy boot on a piece of plywood while singing his twangy songs in small-town bars, but Stompin’ Tom Connors was more than just another lanky country-and-western act. The beloved East Coast singer and songwriter, who died on Wednesday at age 77, was an outspoken Canadian nationalist long before that became a cool thing to be. Stompin’ Tom was a pioneer, and he will be missed.

These days, Canada isn’t scared to be a little loud and proud. Politicians push patriotic buttons and endlessly recite their devotion to “hard-working Canadians.” Advertisers shamelessly (and successfully) plug our country and its natural beauty, and play up Canadians’ adventuresome and ribald sides. But Stompin’ Tom was doing that a long time ago, celebrating the end of a hard week’s work with famous lyrics like, “The girls are out to bingo and the boys are getting’ stinko/ And we’ll think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday night.”

Nationalistic to the point of being a curmudgeon, Connors fought with the Junos for nominating Canadian performers who made their name and sold most of their music outside Canada, and he battled with the CBC over its refusal to broadcast a concert he’d taped for that purpose.

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Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Celebrates 25th Anniversary – by Rober W. Schaffer


(L to R) Pierre Lassande, Gerald W. Grandey, Charles E. Fipke, James C. O’Rourke)

Part One – Pre-Dinner Remarks

Robert W. Schafer is the Executive Vice President, Business Development Hunter Dickinson Inc. and the Chairman, CMHF Board of Directors

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame and our Sponsors, let me welcome you to our 25th annual banquet and Silver Anniversary induction ceremony. Tonight we will welcome four new members to the Canadian
Mining Hall of Fame. We have another record attendance. This will be an exciting night and I am certain that you will enjoy it!

The principal role of the Mining Hall of Fame is to recognize the best of our leaders, innovators, operators, ore finders and legends in our industry. The prime responsibility of the Board is to review the nominations that have been submitted by the sponsoring organizations as well as from the public, and recognize those that exemplify the ideals of the Canadian Mining Industry. There are currently 155 inductees in the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. All of them are listed in this programme, and we are fortunate enough to have several of them with us tonight.

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Four greats to enter Canadian Mining Hall of Fame – by Northern Miner (October 29 – November 04, 2012)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame will welcome four new inductees at its twenty-fifth annual induction dinner on Jan. 10, 2013, at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto. The new inductees are Charles E. Fipke, Gerald W. Grandey, Pierre Lassonde and James C. O’Rourke. The Northern Miner is a sponsor of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. For tickets and more information, visit www.mininghalloffame.ca.

Geologists and prospectors had searched for diamond deposits in North America for more than a century with only teasing hints of success until discovering a cluster of kimberlites in the Northwest Territories that became Ekati, Canada’s first diamond mine. This groundbreaking discovery, synonymous with the name “Charles E. (Chuck) Fipke,” was the culmination of Fipke’s relentless pursuit of elusive diamond indicator minerals for hundreds of kilometres from the Mackenzie River Valley eastward to their source near Lac de Gras. Other key contributors in his quest were his associate, geologist Stewart Blusson, economic geologist Hugo Dummett and University of Cape Town professor John Gurney. The discovery’s epic success — achieved on a shoestring budget through innovative science — sparked a staking rush, inspired other discoveries and created a new industry for Canada.

Born in Edmonton, Alta., Fipke earned a B.Sc. degree in geology from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1970. His adventurous nature took him to Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Brazil and other exotic locales, where he worked for senior companies such as Kennecott and Cominco, and became intrigued with the use of heavy mineral geochemistry as an exploration tool.

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Mining legend built legacy by giving back [John Larche dies] – by Kyle Gennings (Timmins Daily Press – October 8, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Timmins lost one of the golden pillars of its community this Thanksgiving Day. John Larche died of natural causes, surrounded by his family at Timmins and District Hospital on Monday morning. He was 84.

It was the final page in a life highlighted by a long list of accomplishments which changed the face of the prospecting and mining industry the world round; it was the final page in a life that saw both hardship and success, one that was built on giving back, a life that cemented him in the memory of the City with the Heart of Gold

Larche was one of the true legends of the Porcupine Camp, as one of Canada’s most successful prospectors and in term of generosity in the community. He became involved in exploration in 1955, as an independent prospector and contractor.

He remained active in the industry until shortly before his death. Beginning in the late 1960s, he was elected president of the Porcupine branch of the Prospectors and Developers Association for 17 consecutive terms.

“He was a long-time friend,” said Dean Rogers, the association’s current president. “John was one of the stalwarts of the Porcupine Camp’s second generation, a true legend”

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The story of mining prospector Don McKinnon: SPECIAL TO THE TIMES – (Timmins Times – August 12, 2012)

http://www.timminstimes.com/

A close-up and personal look at a Timmins man who changed our mining history

ED’S NOTE: Following is a story on the life on Don McKinnon presented by a close friend of McKinnon and his family. McKinnon died Thursday.

The Canadian mining fraternity has lost one of the most successful prospectors from its ranks with the passing of Donald Duncan McKinnon. Just eight days before his 83rd birthday, Don passed away peacefully Aug. 9 at the Timmins and District Hospital surrounded by family and loved ones.

Born and raised in the Town of Cochrane, McKinnon had made his home in Timmins since 1956. The man with the heart of gold always loved the city with the heart of gold. This was his base as he prospected all over Canada from the High Arctic to the Maritimes and British Columbia. As well as in the United States.

He was much more than a prospector, however, as his interests ranged from municipal and provincial politics to the economy of Northern Ontario and the need to preserve the region’s special way of life.

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Mining legend Don McKinnon dies – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – August 11, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The mining world is mourning the loss of an icon and Timmins has lost a dear friend. Famed prospector Don McKinnon died Thursday at Timmins and District Hospital, surrounded by his family. He was 83.
 
McKinnon earned success and fame with the majority of his vast knowledge being self-taught. Despite dropping out of high school, McKinnon set a goal of becoming a millionaire by age 40. He went on to become one of the most successful prospectors in the history of The Porcupine Camp.
 
Born in Cochrane in 1929, McKinnon enjoyed playing hockey as a youth, often with his childhood friend Tim Horton. But McKinnon also had a talent for art and acting. After dropping out of high school, he found work in construction in Iroquois Falls.
 
As a forest superintendent for paper-producing company Kimberly-Clark, he started studying rocks while in the bush. That’s when he took an interest in prospecting. He would spend hours studying geological reports and surveys, always watchful for promising claims, before heading out into the bush.

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Legendary Hemlo prospector Don McKinnon dead at 83 – by Peter Kennedy (Stockhouse.com – August 11, 2012)

http://www.stockhouse.com/

Don McKinnon and partner John Larche played a key role in the discovery of the Hemlo gold mining camp in Ontario, one of Canada’s richest gold districts. Don McKinnon, one of Canada’s best known mineral prospectors, died Thursday in a Timmins, Ont., hospital. He was 83.
 
It was the staking activity of McKinnon and partner John Larche that contributed to the discovery of the Hemlo, Ont. gold camp in the early 1980s, home of the Williams, Golden Giant and David Bell gold mines.
 
His staking in that area resulted in McKinnon being a key witness in the epic court battle between Lac Minerals and Corona Corp. for control of the Williams gold mine. At the time, it was the largest underground gold mine in Canada. A 1986 Ontario Supreme Court judgement awarded the mine to Corona. That decision was later upheld  in 1989 after Lac appealed.
 
The court battle centred on allegations that LAC had misused confidential information provided to it by Corona and committed a breach of confidence. Lac was swallowed by Barrick Gold Corp.  (TSX: T.ABX, Stock Forum) (NYSE: ABX, Stock Forum) in 1995.

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