Twitter

Canadian Mining History

The dark side of Cobalt, the digital age’s miracle metal – by Charlie Angus (Toronto Star – January 30, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

Charlie Angus looks at lessons from an early 20th-century mining rush. An excerpt from the new book by the New Democrat MP for Timmins—James Bay, “Cobalt: Cradle of the Demon Metals, Birth of a Mining Superpower.”

The world is searching for cobalt, the miracle ingredient of the digital age. The metal’s capacity to store energy and stabilize conductors has made possible the proliferation of rechargeable batteries, smartphones and laptops. More crucially, in the face of catastrophic climate change, cobalt offers the hope of a clean-energy future.

Read more

The life and death of a very special gold rush – by Ellsworth Dickson (Resource World – (September 2021)

https://resourceworld.com/

In the early days, Canada’s most western province, British Columbia, was built on gold. While there were the famous gold rushes of the Fraser River in 1858 and Barkerville in 1862, there is one gold rush that stands apart from the rest – the Granite Creek gold rush near Princeton, southwest B.C.

What make Granite Creek different is that besides gold, there are also platinum nuggets – one of only two places in the world – the other being the Amur River in Russia.

Read more

Nickel defined Port Colborne history for a century (St Catherines Standard – September 19, 2018)

https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/

In the dog days of summer in 1916, directors of the International Nickel Co. — or Inco — met to discuss the acquisition of land in Port Colborne, with its abundance of access to hydroelectricity and transportation, as the site for the company’s first Canadian nickel refinery.

With that the die was cast and Port Colborne, then a sleepy little village at the entrance to the Welland Canal, would never be the same. “It changed the whole of Port Colborne; it refined and defined Port Colborne,” said Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum assistant co-ordinator Michelle Mason.

Read more

Nunavut mine created legacy of partnership – by A.J. Roan (North of 60 Mining News – September 30, 2021)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Found within the newest territory of Canada, Nunavut may seem barren and inhospitable, yet it has provided resources and succor to its First Peoples for thousands of years.

While European colonizers and the indigenous peoples in their ancestral home suffered many differences, it was the shared efforts of the two groups in trade and labor that bridged this gap, eventually leading to the formation of Nunavut itself.

Read more

125 years after gold was discovered in the Yukon, we ventured up to Dawson City. Here’s what it looks like now – by Brendan Kiley (Seattle Times – September 10, 2021)

https://www.seattletimes.com/

DAWSON CITY, the Yukon Territory — The first tourists to Dawson City arrived in July of 1898, a few weeks before the boomtown’s second birthday.

Mrs. Mary E. Hitchcock (widow of a U.S. Navy officer) and Miss Edith Van Buren (niece of the former U.S. president) swept into the new gold-mining settlement, 170 miles south of the Arctic Circle, with opulent cargo: a zither, a parrot, canaries, a portable bowling alley, crates of fancy foods (pâté, truffles, olives), a movie projector, an exhaustive wardrobe (silks, furs, starched collars, sombreros), two Great Danes and a 2,800 square-foot marquee tent for their lodgings.

Read more

J.P. Bickell was the Mogul of Molesworth – by David Yates (Shoreline Beacon – July 21, 2021)

https://www.shorelinebeacon.com/

When he died on Aug. 22, 1951, J. P. Bickell was one of Canada’s wealthiest and most powerful men. A millionaire before age 30, Bickell rose from an impoverished background to become a successful mining magnate, investment broker, theatre impresario, patron of the arts, aircraft pioneer, auto racer, adventurer, philanthropist and patriot.

Bickell was also one of Huron County’s extraordinary sons. John Paris Bickell was born on Sept. 26, 1884 in the Molesworth Presbyterian Church manse to Rev. David Bickell and his wife, Annie Paris.

He was the second of four children in a family that saw its share of tragedy. His father died in 1891, his younger brother died in 1892. His older brother died of appendicitis in 1898.

Read more

Teck’s VP of sustainability named MABC’s Mining Person of the Year – by Vladimir Basov (Kitco News – July 19, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – The Mining Association of British Columbia (MABC) is pleased to announce Marcia Smith, Senior Vice President, Sustainability and External Affairs, Teck Resources Limited, as British Columbia’s 2020 Mining Person of the Year.

The Mining Person of the Year award publicly recognizes an individual who has shown outstanding leadership advancing and promoting the mining industry in areas of innovation, safety, sustainable development, and corporate social responsibility within British Columbia.

“The 2020 Mining Person of the Year award honors Marcia Smith for her leadership in shaping Teck’s approach to sustainability and ESG performance, and for her role in advancing responsible mining and sustainable business practices within British Columbia’s mining sector,” said Michael Goehring, President and CEO of the Mining Association of BC.

Read more

Pioneering explorer, pilot Ron Sheardown – by A.J. Roan (North of 60 Mining News – June 25, 2021)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Few men and women could attest to having lived with an adventurous spirit and actually having gone and adventured, but this isn’t so for mining and aviation pioneer Ronald Sheardown.

Soon to be inducted into the Alaska Aviation Museum’s Hall of Fame for Pathway and Explorer Pilot this year, Ron has lived a life many could not even dream about.

Born in Bolton, Ontario, in 1936 – a stone’s throw from Toronto – Ron came from a time when aviation was still in its fledgling years, and Man was still mastering the ways to conquer gravity.

Read more

The inspiration for revolution: Unhealthy working conditions and low wages led asbestos miners to launch a strike that left a lasting legacy in Quebec’s history – by Mehanaz Yakub (CIM Magazine – June 21, 2021)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

When the clock struck midnight on February 14, 1949, the normally quiet streets of the small town of Asbestos, Quebec, were packed with nearly 2,000 workers from the Jeffrey Mine who were ready to go on strike.

Later that Valentine’s Day morning, 3,000 more miners from the neighbouring Thetford Mine joined the walkout, and what followed was one of the longest and most brutal labour disputes in the province’s history.

Since the late 19th century, Quebec, and especially Asbestos, was the largest producer and exporter of the eponymous mineral. Asbestos was popularly used for insulation, soundproofing and fireproofing, and American and English-Canadian owned companies, such as Johns-Manville, Asbestos Corp., and Flintkote all set up operations around Quebec’s Eastern Townships.

Read more

New book reappraises Silvery Slocan mining rush – by Greg Nesteroff (Nelson Star – July 15, 2020)

https://www.nelsonstar.com/

The book is available at: https://www.silveryslocan.ca/

A new book takes a comprehensive look at an era when the Slocan was at BC’s economic and political forefront.

At more than 600 pages, Peter Smith’s self-published Silver Rush: British Columbia’s Silvery Slocan 1891-1900 may intimidate casual readers. But within its pages lies an epic story of the men and women who flocked to the region to ride a wave of sudden prosperity.

Smith’s interest in the Slocan’s history was whetted when he came to the area from Victoria in the mid-1970s. “I thought wow, this place is incredible. Why have I never heard of it? The deeper I dug, the more important the history became.”

Read more

Yukon UNESCO World Heritage bid shifts focus from Gold Rush to colonialism (CBC News North – May 25, 2021)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Three years after withdrawing a bid to become a UNESCO World Heritage site, a local committee in Dawson City, Yukon, is trying again — this time shifting focus from mining and the Klondike Gold Rush to the experience of colonialism by First Nations.

“Tr’ondëk-Klondike as a site tells an exceptional story that reflects Indigenous peoples’ — Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in peoples’ —experience and adaptation to what we know as the phenomenon of European colonialism,” said Lee Whalen, of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation’s heritage department.

“So under the criteria for World Heritage, we are illustrating a significant stage in human history.”

Read more

” THE STORY OF NICKEL ” 1930s INCO MINING PROMO FILM FROOD MINE SUDBURY, ONTARIO, CANADA

This 1930s black & white educational/promotional film tells “The Story of Nickel”. It was produced by INCO, the International Nickel Company, Ltd., now known as Vale Canada, Limited. INCO as founded following the discovery of copper deposits in Sudbury, Ontario. During World War II, Inco’s Frood-Stobie Mine Mine produced 40% of the nickel used in …

Read more

[Sponsored] The Gold Rush in Newfoundland (Investing News Network – March 31, 2021)

https://investingnews.com/

Canada is one of the world’s leading mining nations, ranking among the top five global producers for minerals such as gold, potash, cadmium, cobalt, graphite, nickel and many others.

In 2019, the country’s total mineral production reached C$48.2 billion. While Ontario and Quebec represent two key mineral exploration jurisdictions within Canada, one major province is often overlooked by investors looking to gain a share of the country’s precious metals sector: Atlantic Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador.

The discussion around mining in Eastern Canada is often overshadowed by the prolific Abitibi greenstone belt that spans across the border between Ontario and Quebec, but Newfoundland offers one of the most extensive mining histories in Canada, with small-scale mining dating back to the 1770s, expanding into a major industry by the 1860s.

Read more

The only city in Northwest Territories – by A.J. Roan (North of 60 Mining News – March 26, 2021)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Far to the north lies the second largest of Canada’s three territories, simply named the Northwest Territories, and within this vast region of more than 400,000 square miles lies its only city, the capital called Yellowknife.

Yellowknife, and most of the region of the Northwest Territories, lies within what is known as the Canadian Shield, a large area of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock, meaning it dates to the earliest part of Earth’s history.

Scoured down to stone during the last ice age, glaciation has receded over time, revealing a joined bedrock region in eastern and central Canada, stretching from north of the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean, this shield covers more than half of Canada and most of Greenland, and extends south into the northern parts of the United States.

Read more

OPINION | It’s about time Yukon Rendezvous dropped the colonialist ‘Sourdough’ – by Lori Fox (CBC News North – February 2, 2021)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Yukon’s beloved Gold Rush history is ‘a hot mess of highly questionable colonial behaviour,’ argues Lori Fox

Organizers of the one-time Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous festival — either an all-ages winter carnival or a week-long bender, depending on your proclivities — recently announced they are dropping “Sourdough” from their name, and the festival would be hitherto known simply as “Yukon Rendezvous.”

The decision, they said, was the result of public feedback around the colonial nature of the word.

The name change was met with fury from some Yukoners, many of whom took to social media and called it an “erasure” of Yukon history — by which they mean settler history, specifically that of the Klondike Gold Rush, from which “sourdough,” as a moniker denoting a fortune-seeker who overwintered in the territory, originates.

Read more