Canadian Mining History – Page 17

Murder at Royal York Hotel mining convention [PDAC – March 9, 1987] shocked Timmins 25 years ago – by Len Gillis (Timmins Times – March 8, 2012)

March 14, 2012

www.timminstimes.com lgillis@timminstimes.com

What happened that two close friends became deadly enemies?

“You bastard,” the dying man shouted.

Those were the last words that Timmins “Timmy” Bissonnette was ever to hear from his lifelong friend Guy Maurice Lamarche just moments after Bissonnette shot Lamarche with a .38 calibre pistol.

It was 25 years ago this week that the people of Timmins and the Canadian mining exploration community were stunned when the news of the shooting flashed out from The Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto where the annual Prospectors and Developers Convention was underway.

It was the tragic end of a friendship that had begun years earlier when two Timmins boys became close friends, drinking buddies and lifelong pals.

It was the supper hour on Monday March 9th, 1987. It was the first full day of the convention. Lamarche was standing near the top of the up-escalator leading to the main exhibit hall at the Royal York. Lamarche was well known to the mining crowd and was smiling and greeting many friends and associates.

Ned Goodman (Born 1937) – 2012 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

January 12, 2012

Ned Goodman has made transformative and enduring contributions to Canada’s minerals industry and capital markets as a company-builder, merchant banker and investment advisor during a dynamic career spanning almost half a century. He applied his geological training and business acumen to help build several successful mining companies — notably International Corona and Kinross Gold — and nurtured many other mineral producing companies through astute and timely investments. In addition to being anoutstanding member of the philanthropic community, Montreal-born Goodman is considered one of the leading architects of Canada’s investment management industry.

Along with his partners, he founded the first exploration flow-through partnership, CMP Group, which has raised almost $5 billion since the 1980s to help companies explore and develop mining and petroleum companies, leading to the generation of jobs and benefits for rural and northern economies in Canada. He was also the driving force of the Dundee group of financial companies, which grew under his leadership from a $300-millionbase to a $50-billion mutual fund entity.

Phillip G. Hallof (1931-1992) – 2012 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

January 12, 2012

Phillip Hallof earned his status as one of the “fathers of modern geophysics” for his pioneering and innovative work in the field of frequency domain induced polarization (IP), which grew from an obscure research effort into an essential exploration tool. He contributed in many ways to the research and development of geophysical equipment, techniques and interpretation, and also provided technical expertise to the mineral exploration industry through his leadership of McPhar Geophysics Inc. and later Phoenix Geophysics. Another legacy of his 35-year career was aiding the discovery of mineral wealth for the benefit of Canada and the global economy.

Hallof was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and educated at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a bachelor’s degree in geology (geophysics option) in 1952. While still a graduate student, he undertook research into the then-novel, variable frequency IP method being developed by Newmont Exploration and demonstrated that it gave measurable responses over certain known sulphide deposits. The technology was further refined and successfully field tested, resulting in a valuable new tool to help identify buried mineral deposits that were not conductive and which conventional electromagnetic (EM) surveys could not detect. He also created a new and useful mode ofdisplaying multi-spaced IP and resistivity data in the now standard pseudosection format.

John A. Hansuld (Born 1931) – 2012 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductee

January 12, 2012

John Hansuld served Canada’s mining and minerals sector with distinction as a pioneering geochemist, entrepreneurial company-builder and dedicated industry advocate. As a scientist, he advanced the application of geochemical techniques to mineral exploration and enhanced the profile and prestige of its practitioners.

As a corporate leader, he built Amax Exploration (Canada) into a premier exploration and mine development group later taken public as Canamax Resources Inc. He was also instrumental in transforming the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) from a largely Canadian organization to one of global influence.

Hansuld is perhaps best remembered for his leadership role in using the “flow-through share” tax-incentive program to fund Canadian mineral exploration at a time when many juniors were finding it difficult to access traditional capital markets.

Robert Hunter (1927-2007) and Robert Dickinson (Born 1948) – 2012 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Inductees

January 12, 2012

A partnership formed by Robert Hunter and Robert Dickinson more than 25 years ago has endured as the inspirational foundation for Hunter Dickinson Inc. (HDI), one of North America’s most respected mineral exploration and mine development groups. With Hunter as the financier and promoter and Dickinson as the technical advocate and project potential savant, the efforts of this entrepreneurial duo led to the development of one of the most successful teams in Canadian mining history.

The HDI team has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to advance mineral projects in Canada and around the world. The list includes many important porphyry deposits — notably Mount Milligan, Kemess and Prosperity in BC, Pebble in Alaska, and Xietongmen in China — as well as gold and other deposit types. Hunter and Dickinson both began their careers in their home province of BC. Hunter was a top-performing life insurance agent for 20 years before joining the mining scene in the early 1980s.

Timmins Celebrating 100 years – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – December 31, 2011)

December 31, 2011

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum and a local author.

Timmins centennial kicks off New Year’s Day at the McIntyre Arena — one of the community’s icons

Well, here we are, finally, sitting on the cusp of our 100th anniversary celebrations for Timmins – and yes, we have much to celebrate, commemorate, ponder and enjoy.

From a small boomtown based on a hope and a prayer, Timmins has grown into one of the world’s most important mining municipalities.

We have been home to the world’s largest gold mine, the world’s largest zinc mine and one of the world’s deepest mines. We are still home to the mine that started it all, and it promises to be in production for many years to come.

Timmins also has many heroes in the fields of sports, culture, art, science and business. The city has seen many of its sons and daughters go on to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, be it in the laboratory or on a stage or in an arena or a lecture hall.

The North loses a great leader: John Zigarlick Jr. – by Bill Braden (Canadian Mining Journal – December 20, 2011)

December 21, 2011

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

Across Northern Canada, the mining and transport industries mourn the death of John Zigarlick Jr. One of the North’s modern-day mining visionaries and builders, he died suddenly in Edmonton Dec. 17, of natural causes. He was 74.

It was his audacious decision in 1980 to build the Lupin Gold Mine by air that secured his place in mining history. As President of Echo Bay Mines, he bought a Boeing 727 and a Hercules freighter and airlifted 64 million pounds of material from Yellowknife. This and other developments vaulted Echo Bay into the spotlight as a mid-tier world gold miner.

Lupin was also the genesis of the 600 km Tibbitt to Contwoyto ice road, first built in 1982, that supplied the mine for the rest of its 18 year life. By the early 1990s, John had left Echo Bay and, in a joint venture with the Inuit of western Nunavut, started the Nuna Corporation which since 1997 has built and operated the road for the NWT’s diamond mines. John grew Nuna into a multi-layered construction, training and consulting services to mining and exploration companies across the arctic.

[Kirkland Lake History] ERNIE’S GOLD: A Prospector’s Tale – by Brian (Chip) Martin

December 18, 2011

For an autographed copy of Ernie’s Gold, please contact the author at: chipmartin@sympatico.ca.

Great Christmas Gift: $20.00 plus shipping!

In the early 1900s, young Ernie Martin immigrated from Staffordshire, England, to Canada to seek his fortune. He finally ended up in Kirkland Lake, where gold was to be found if you were willing to work at it. Ernie was. And so was Harry Oakes. The two of them became prospecting partners. Ernie and Harry worked hard and non-stop to find a vein of gold so they could start a mine.

When it finally happened, the mine grew into a huge money-maker for the two of them. Ernie’s first wife, Mary, also was a prospector, and in fact ended up financially far better off than Ernie. Why was that? How is it that multi-millionaire Ernie Martin arrived at the end of his life virtually a pauper? This is a book full of surprises and answers — and a few questions.

Excerpt from Ernie’s Gold: A Prospector’s Tale:

Meanwhile, in Kirkland Lake, the town had reached a population of 13,000 and was weathering the Depression better than most communities. Job-seekers streamed in looking for work, but only a few were successful. Many moved on and only a few stayed behind. Relief rolls began to grow but remained comparatively small. At a time when one in ten workers was on relief in the depth of the Depression, only 205 families were on the dole in Kirkland Lake.

Northern Vision: Northern Development during the Diefenbaker Era [Roads to Resources] Thesis – by Philip Isard

December 15, 2011

China, India and many other developing countries are industrializing and urbanizing their economies. This has unleashed a global demand for minerals, oil and gas and other resources – a commodity super-cycle. In the past year, the Conference Board of Canada and other agencies have published various reports about the need for northern infrastructure develpment to tap into the rich resources across the north.

This is not a new concept. John G. Diefenbaker had a northern vision in the late 1950s and implemented policies including the “Roads to Resources” initiative to take advantage of then world demand for resources due to the cold war, pent-up American consumer demand and the rebuilding of war- torn economies and the industrialization of Japan, South Korea and other smaller economies. – (Stan Sudol)

This thesis was presented to the University of Waterloo ,by Philip Isard in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for his degree of Master of Arts in History, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2010. Click here for this very insightful thesis: http://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/5032/1/Isard_Philip.pdf

Abstract Summary of Philip Isard’s Thesis

At the inauguration of John G. Diefenbaker’s 1958 election campaign, the Prime Minister announced his ‘Northern Vision,’ a bold strategy to extend Canadian nationhood to the Arctic and develop its natural resources for the benefit of all Canadians. In some ways, the ‘Northern Vision’ was a political platform, an economic platform as well as an ideological platform.

Thirty Years of Glory: The Kidd Creek Timmins Story – by Gregory Reynolds (Fall 1996)

September 5, 2016September 21, 2011

This column was originally published in the Fall, 1996 issue of Highgrader Magazine which is committed to serve the interests of northerners by bringing the issues, concerns and culture of the north to the world through the writings and art of award-winning journalists as well as talented freelance artists, writers and photographers.

On November 8, 1963, a young Canadian geologist named Ken Darke set up a diamond drill 16 miles north of the Town of Timmins. The hole was logged as Kidd 55-1 and when the core came up there was a foot of solid copper in it. On July 16, 1996, Frank Pickard, then 62, president and CEO of Falconbridge Ltd. told a gathering of Timmins civic and political leaders he hoped Kidd Creek Mine would be here “thirty years from now. I won’t be here, but the mine could be.”

In between these two dates is the story of a unique orebody, one so rich it staggers the imagination.

Kidd Creek Mine has been in production since 1966. It has processed 106.5 million tones grading 6.55% zinc, 2.31% copper, .24% lead and 94 grams silver per tonne. In addition, there is an estimated 32.2 million tones of ore in the proven, probable and possible reserves for a grand total of 138.7 million tones of base metals. By comparison, the 1994 copper-nickel-cobalt discovery at Voisey’s Bay in Labrador is presently estimated to contain just over 100 million tonnes.

The Kidd Creek Mine literally saved the town and improved the lot of every miners in the area.

Along the Blacktop of Riches: The Abitibi-Greenstone Belt – by Charlie Angus (1999)

July 12, 2011

Excerpt from Industrial Cathedrals of the North written by Charlie Angus and photographed by Louie Palu (1999)

To order a copy of Industrial Cathedrals of the North, please go to Between the Lines press.

Take a drive along the blacktop as Highway 66 turns into 117 and you’ll be taking a drive over one of the richest geological treasures in the world. The highway forms the lower part of a belt of riches known as the Abitibi-Greenstone belt. Over 140 million ounces of gold have been mined from the belt, a feat unparalleled anywhere except in the gold fields of South Africa. The belt is made up of two parallel fault lines running east-west from Ontario into Quebec. The northern edge of the belt – the Porcupine-Destor Fault – runs from the Porcupine along Highway 101 to Destor, Quebec, while the lower fault – the Larder-Cadillac Break – runs from Matachewan, Ontario along 66 towards Val d’Or, Quebec. The fault lines have been the source of some of Canada’s biggest gold mines. The ground between the faults is host to numerous base metal deposits.

The Larder-Cadillac Break is as much a social line as it is a geological formation. The fault runs straight through the heart of many historic gold camps: Matachewan, Kirkland Lake, Larder Lake, V-Town, Rouyn-Noranda, McWatters, Cadillac, Malarctic and Val d’Or. The Abitibi-Greenstone belt has created a natural east-west link across the two provinces. Communities along the fault lines share common links of history, work and identity. Indeed the whole opening up of Northwestern Quebec to mining is a direct result of the movement of prospectors and miners along the lines of the Abitibi-Greenstone belt.

Prospector Ed Horne played a pivotal role in this early development. Before the first World War he was prospecting in Gowganda, Kirkland Lake and the Porcupine. He then moved along the westerly axis from the Kirkland-Larder camps into the Lake Osisko region of Rouyn Township, Quebec.

How the Web gave a razed mining town [Pine Point, NWT] poignant life – by Ivor Tossell (Globe and Mail – March 15, 2011)

July 10, 2011July 10, 2011

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media.

For the NFB documentary file please click here: Welcome to Pine Point

For 30 years in the later part of the last century, there was a place called Pine Point, a town of 1,200, across Great Slave Lake from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.

Pine Point was an insta-bake lead and zinc mining town, a pre-fab suburban subdivision plunked down in the middle of nowhere in the 1960s. It was a thriving place in its day, and it was inhabited just long enough for one full generation to pass through it.

People were born there and schooled there. People came of age there. It was a northern party town of mullets and tinted glasses and foolhardy backlot exploits. Its residents formed clubs and played in bands and did their banking. They photographed themselves in tight, terrible swimsuits in the sun and snowsuits in the cold and drank at the hotel bar, and at the legion hall, and, by many indications, pretty much anywhere else they could. And then the mine closed, and Pine Point, quite simply, was razed.

But the town didn’t vanish, exactly. You can’t demolish a community without leaving debris, debris of many sorts, and it turns out that that debris has been preserved in a most poignant and remarkable way.

[Great Porcupine Fire] Timmins Pioneers share deadly 1911 fire tales – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – July 9, 2011)

July 10, 2011

The Daily Press is the newspaper of record for the city of Timmins. Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum and a local author.

Ceremony at Deadman’s Point on Monday will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great Porcupine Fire

I could recount the history of the Porcupine Fire for you today, but I have chosen not to do so. Why hear it from me, when you can hear what it was like from the people who actually survived that fateful day.

Thanks to the early work of the Porcupine Camp Historical Society, we have wonderful recordings of our early pioneers, and their memories of what life was like in the Porcupine.

So, today, I keep my ideas to myself, and I’ll let those in the know tell you about the Great Porcupine Fire of 1911. Elizabeth Pearl Heath was a survivor that day. She was a young married woman in July 1911.

“The fire did bear down on us speedily and with fury. I made sure that my billfold was in my patchpocket of my skirt, threw my knapsack and a light blanket over my shoulder and struck out for the lake.

John T. Williamson – (1907-1958) – 2011 Canadian Hall of Fame Inductee

February 21, 2011January 19, 2011

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Canada’s recent emergence as a centre of excellence for diamond exploration and production owes much to the pioneering efforts of John Williamson, a brilliant geologist from McGill University who discovered, built and operated the highly successful Williamson diamond mine — also known as Mwadui — in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). His efforts to build and operate a diamond mine in remote East Africa, where he spent much of his life from the mid-1930s until his death, are legendary. The mine’s total production from 1941-2008 has been estimated at 20 million carats, with a current value estimated at $3 billion. The mine also created thousands of jobs and a socially progressive town-site known for its amenities.

Williamson also left a valuable legacy in Canada, by recruiting and introducing young scientists, notably McGill graduates, to the newly emerging diamond industry. Decades later, they lent their expertise and credibility to help Canada realize its diamond potential.

Born in Montfort, Quebec, Williamson entered Montreal’s McGill University in 1925, intending to study law, but a summer field expedition to Labrador inspired him to switch to geology. He earned his BA, MSc and PhD degrees in geology between 1928 and 1933.

Bert Wasmund – (Born 1939) – 2011 Canadian Hall of Fame Inductee

February 21, 2011January 19, 2011

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Bert Wasmund has been a world-renowned leader in metallurgical plant engineering and design for more than 40 years, as well as a driving force in the growth and success of Hatch Ltd., a Canadian firm serving the global mining and metallurgical industry. He is credited with a series of breakthrough contributions to metallurgical operations in Canada and abroad that improved their productivity, cost and energy efficiencies, capability to extract valuable products from lower grade ores and environmental performance in many cases.

He has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to the acquisition and mentorship of the next generation of engineers. This leadership has helped to attract a new generation to the mining and metallurgical industry and provided young professionals with interesting and challenging careers.