Digging for Treasure: Mining in Canada

Introduction:

Guy Gaudreau, Laurentian University, 2003

A 19th-century miner was a true craftsman: with just a few tools, always on the lookout for outcrops of rock, aware of the texture and cracking of the rock, he entered makeshift tunnels dug out by his own hand. For an understanding of how the second industrial revolution transformed his work, let us first review some of the features of mining in the pre?industrial period by looking at some of the visual evidence left by the gold diggers and the copper-mining companies of the mid-19th century. The tour first looks at the early decades of the 20th century, when gold, silver, copper, nickel, asbestos and coal mining were booming and new mining regions were being opened up.

Keys to History:

In Canada, gold was first discovered in 1834, along a tributary of the Chaudière River, south of Quebec City. Unfortunately, nothing came of it, and it was the California gold rush of 1848-49 that marked the true advent of this precious metal. Ten years later, it was the turn of the Fraser River in British Columbia to be invaded by some 25,000 gold diggers, most of them from San Francisco. But they did not stay long, as there were not many nuggets to be found. The last prospectors' gold rush was in the Klondike, in the late 19th century.

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In the 1840s, copper veins around the Great Lakes began to be mined. Although most copper mining took place south of Lake Superior, the north shore of Georgian Bay, which could also be reached by boat, was also mined. Bruce Mines, some 50 km east of Sault Ste. Marie, saw its first production in 1847-48. The first miners hired-just as in Michigan-were from the coal mines in Cornwall, England. These men jealously respected tradition, negotiating their share of production and profits with the mine captain. Their intransigence, together with the configuration of the deposit, limited the possibility of expansion, however, so only small volumes were extracted, and that only irregularly.

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During the American Civil War (1861-65), the skyrocketing price of copper led to intensive exploration of deposits in Quebec's Eastern Townships. Dozens of mines were opened, including the one at Huntington. The copper content of the deposits was high, and the same mode of operation, depending entirely on the miners' expertise, was used. Drilling was still done by hand, since the bit was hammered into the rock before powder was poured in. The mechanical means of bringing the ore up to the surface from underground were just as primitive, using horsepower or a hand-turned capstan.

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Surprisingly, the mines used huge amounts of wood, not just to fuel the steam boilers, but also to shore up the unstable tunnels. In addition, at each mine site, there were always a few buildings on the surface. Some were used for storage, others for mechanical processing of the ore: breaking up rocks, preliminary sorting of valuable rocks and preparing for smelting. The blacksmith and carpenter, the skilled workers of the time, also had their shops nearby, as they always did at mines. Because of the small scale of the mining, the total workforce hired at each mine rarely numbered more than 100, so the hierarchy, dominated by the mine captain, was very elementary.

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Founded in 1865, the Eustis mine remained in production until 1939. This exceptionally long life, which distinguishes it from the other Eastern Township copper mines, can be explained by the fact that it also extracted iron sulphide used to make acid. Bought out after it was founded, it fell into the hands of the American-owned Orford Nickel and Copper Company, which had tried unsuccessfully to extract nickel from its mine in nearby Orford. Wily businessman Robert M. Thompson, one of the major shareholders, did not lose his interest in nickel, however. In 1902 he played a key role in setting up the multinational International Nickel Company of Sudbury from a merger of several mining companies.

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From the late 19th century on, Canada welcomed many immigrants drawn by its economic prosperity and land out West. At first mostly men came to find work, and they stayed only temporarily. For every 100 immigrants, up to 50 would sail back to Europe. In a kind of chain reaction, they headed to towns and regions where they already had family or fellows from their hometown. Many chose the mining towns of Northern Ontario, like Sudbury and Timmins. After repaying the cost of their passage, they saved money to take back to Europe -- yet some stayed on in Canada and settled in ethnic neighbourhoods that provided essential services.

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The 1880s saw the introduction of mechanical drills in Canada. Powered by steam, or more commonly, compressed air, they revolutionized drilling in mines, considerably increasing productivity. The first models were very heavy, and it took the strength of several men to move one, but this advanced technology was here to stay. Mines set up a system of underground pipes to power the drills in the different tunnels. The growing demand of the asbestos industry in the region gave rise to the birth or expansion of many mechanical shops, especially in Sherbrooke.

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When deposits are rich and on the surface, mining companies start extracting the ore by gradually enlarging their drill hole, resulting in a quarry, or open pit. Iron, nickel, and sometimes gold, but especially asbestos, are mined this way. These mines continue production for decades without having to dig underground tunnels. Winter mining is obviously a challenge, as drilling must be halted or slowed down. Hoisting the drilled ore requires mechanical assistance once volumes start to increase, because teams of draft animals and their drivers cannot handle it anymore. This is also true of underground mines: the deeper the mine, the greater the time and effort required to extract the ore, putting pressure on production costs and the need to develop new processes. Of course, the risk of accident also increases.

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The railways played a crucial role in the development of the mining industry. They were actually a prerequisite to the opening of a mine, because of the high cost of hauling the ore to market. Thanks to Quebec Central's service to Thetford Mines, for example, asbestos companies were able to ship their product to the United States. Similarly, the nickel mines around Sudbury benefited from Canadian Pacific's rail network in the area. Thus all the mines were well served by railway lines criss-crossing their sites and passing near their mills.

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The first steam-driven mechanical shovels used in asbestos pits date back to 1906. Since they moved on tracks, they could also be used with locomotives. The steam shovel was used as a winch to move the wooden bins that were loaded by hand. Once loaded, the bins were placed on platforms and hauled by locomotive to the entrance of a tunnel leading up to the surface. The platforms were then hoisted using a powerful electric winch much stronger than the steam-powered models. Enormous quantities of rock and waste built up near pits, changing the landscape forever. Even today, visitors are amazed at the huge heaps, which are quite logically proportional to the size of the pits.

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Originally, Sudbury was merely a depot and railway junction on the Canadian Pacific line to the West. When company gangs laid the track in 1883, it was to provide access to land for settlers, including many French Canadians. The next year, a large number of copper deposits were discovered, and shortly after that, the drilling began. Not in Sudbury itself, which remained a railway and commercial town for the next 30 years, but in the surrounding area, in places like Copper Cliff. Copper was the first mineral to draw attention, and then it was realized that the ore also contained a similar amount of nickel. At the time few uses for nickel were known, but it did not take long to discover the possibilities.

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The nickel mine workforce lived in a number of mining villages around Sudbury. Most of the workers were British, English Canadian or French Canadian. Some miners came from the Michigan copper mines, but most were from central Canada. From the turn of the 20th century, the mining companies, like other big Canadian businesses, preferred to hire immigrants, who were less demanding and less likely to form a common front in case of a labour dispute. Thus it was that the Sudbury region became home to a number of foreign communities. By the eve of the First World War, the workforce consisted of 75% immigrants, and this was true of all the northern mines until the 1930s. After many studies and metallurgical tests, the demand for nickel from the stainless steel and armaments industries became insatiable.

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Description:

"Nickel Industry, Sudbury: Eighty miles further west of North Bay, junction point for Toronto. Near Sudbury are the greatest nickel mines in the world, supplying over two-thirds of the world's consumption of this metal. The area of the "nickel basin" is about 550 square miles. Smelting is carried on a short distance from the city, the process removing the large iron content and producing nickel-copper matte suitable for refining. The nickel content averages 3.09 per cent, and the copper content 2.12 per cent. Copper converters are seen in the picture."

Excerpt from "ACROSS CANADA BY C. P. R.", Section 3--The Province of Ontario; booklet, McGill University Illustrated Lectures, 1928.

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Although the Sudbury ore had a low copper and nickel content, there was a lot of it. And mining in huge tunnels allowed an extremely refined division of labour underground, unlike any other mine in the North. The ore required complex metallurgical processing to extract its market value. It had to go through a number of steps to remove the impurities, chiefly sulphur, which the converters, used in the last stage of smelting, turned into gas. The gas, vented through tall stacks, produced sulphur dioxide, which polluted the region considerably. A few smelters provided employment for several hundred workers, but they had to put in long hours.

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Blacksmith Fred Larose was intimately involved in the history of the village of Cobalt in Northern Ontario. Assigned to the construction of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway, he spent part of his time prospecting in the surrounding woods with the permission of his boss, with whom he would share any discovery. His efforts were rewarded in the fall of 1903. After a rather uneventful history, the mining claims, which were to become the Larose mine, wound up in the hands of the two Timmins brothers, who owned a general store in Mattawa, and their partners. As there was cobalt in the silver-bearing veins in the region, the town was named Cobalt before it became famous for the silver. Like the Klondike, Cobalt was the scene of a rush unique in Canadian history.

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In 1910 the several dozen mining companies in Cobalt already employed over 3,000 people, not counting all the prospectors in the region. As the silver veins were visible on the surface, everyone hoped to find a mine at little expense. Every day, travellers tried their luck or hoped to cash in on the region's prosperity. Some people even rode up by train from Toronto and New York, for Cobalt fascinated them and made them dream. The Cobalt station became a social gathering place. Many labourers got off the train to find work, which in 1910 was still almost untouched by mechanization. But the surface deposits were soon played out, and further mining required drilling and tunnelling.

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"Cobalt: A little over a hundred miles north of North Bay, which is 250 miles west of Ottawa on the Canadian Pacific main line, is Cobalt, one of the most famous silver-mining districts in the world. The presence here of this precious metal was discovered in 1903, and up to the end of 1925, 364,713,760 ounces of silver have been taken out. In the year of 1925 the production was 10,529,131 ounces. The picture shows a general view of a Cobalt silver mine. Further north yet is the rich Porcupine gold-mining district, which is now by far the greatest gold-producing district of Canada."

Excerpt from "ACROSS CANADA BY C. P. R.", Section 3--The Province of Ontario; booklet, McGill University Illustrated Lectures, 1928.

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In Cobalt, as elsewhere in other mining regions, environmental issues were obviously not a top priority. As the silver-bearing veins ran towards the lakes in the area, the companies pleaded with the government to sell mining claims to the lakebeds. That is how Sir Henry Pellatt's Cobalt Lake Mining purchased, for close to $2 million, the exclusive right to mine the 47 acres of Cobalt Lake. At the outset of the First World War, the lake was drained, killing huge numbers of fish. Progress-and profits!-would not be stopped.

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Not all the mining entrepreneurs were as successful as the Timmins brothers or Sir Henry Pellatt. The vast majority of companies shut down after a few years and were not very profitable. Of the 200-odd incorporated mining companies in and around Cobalt, just over 40 managed to produce regularly. The big companies, always on the lookout for good business opportunities, were constantly exploring and buying unproven new claims in the hopes that they would be money-makers. At the same time, small companies were always trying their luck and occasionally managed to go into production.

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"Coal Mining: Instead of following the main line to Vancouver, we can use an alternative route a hundred or more miles south. Retracing our steps to Calgary, we will swing south to the prosperous little city of Lethbridge, and then turn west. This route is through the Crow's Nest Pass, the lake region of southern British Columbia, and the Kettle Valley. It opens up a country of diverse interest -- beautiful lakes, impressive mountain ranges, fruit farming, and coal and metal mining. The picture shows one of the Galt Mines at Lethbridge, owned by the Canadian Pacific."

Excerpt from "ACROSS CANADA BY C. P. R.", Section 6--Southern British Columbia; booklet, McGill University Illustrated Lectures, 1928.

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Out West, the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway gave a boost to mining. Rich deposits of coal, discovered earlier in southern Alberta, became attractive once it was possible to sell to eastern markets. One of the biggest mining towns in the West was undoubtedly Lethbridge, which was soon linked to Canadian Pacific's mainline. At first mining was done traditionally, as at the Eustis mine, that is, by digging horizontal tunnels into hillsides-thus keeping the work required to get the ore out to a minimum. But the progressively greater distance that had to be travelled to reach the mine face within the deposit forced companies to dig vertical shafts marked by headframes, starting in the 1890s.

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The demand for coal for steam locomotives was so great that coal mines were opened everywhere along the railway lines, even in Banff National Park, Canada's first national park, created in 1895. At the time, national and provincial parks did not prohibit the exploitation of their natural resources. That is why, less than 10 years later, a few kilometres north of Banff, at the foot of Mount Cascade, the Bankhead mine was allowed to open. It sold its output to CPR until closing down in 1923. Today the mine site is one of Alberta's ghost towns and a tourist attraction.

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While silver mining in Cobalt was reaching its peak, hundreds of prospectors were working the area around Porcupine Lake. A few of them discovered gold. The Timmins brothers, rich from the Larose mine, rushed to buy promising claims, even at high prices. With their partners, they founded the Hollinger mine, one of the biggest gold mines in Canada. Mining companies set up at other sites in the immediate area, which within a few years became known as Timmins. The simplicity of the gold-separation process, developed at the turn of the 20th century, allowed many businesses to start up and strike it rich.

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The company Noranda (a contraction of North and Canada) is well known today. Its origins go back to the operations of a single mine that was for a long time the source of its wealth: the Horne copper mine. The mine was named after its discoverer, Ed Horne, who was convinced that the deposits of northeastern Ontario extended into Abitibi. In 1921 he registered promising claims along Lake Osisko. Unable to afford the investment required, he sold his rights to a consortium that, after a few transactions, ended up in the hands of Canadian businessmen. With the financial support of Noah Timmins, a smelter was built, which made the mining operation profitable.

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Although fairly scarce in northern Ontario, iron ore was the focus of significant interest from mining companies. Stimulated by the steel-making plans of the American Francis Clergue at Sault Ste. Marie, but above all by the insatiable demand of U.S. steel makers, iron production enjoyed growth from the late 19th century until the end of the First World War. Sudbury also played an important role, as a new transcontinental railway, the Canadian Northern, began service through the region starting in 1907-08, opening up new territories. Sixty kilometres north of the town, an iron deposit to be known as the Moose Mountain Mine was discovered.

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The mechanization of certain tasks did not mean the end of manual labour in mining. This was true throughout industry in general, as historian Brian Montgomery has aptly demonstrated. A large contingent of day labourers was necessary for all kinds of work both at the mine and smelter. The day labourers, who could account for up to 15% of the workforce, came from farming, logging, construction and other industries. For most of them, it was their first time working in a mine, and they did not stay long. The same could be said of experienced miners, who in this pre-union era, quit more often than they were fired.

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Underground work could be learned quickly, in just a few months, as working the drill was not difficult. It was even easier to handle a pick and shovel. But what took time was recognizing the danger, recognizing the various sounds that indicated unstable rock and anticipating the configuration of the tunnel after the explosion. The miners also had to get used to the poor lighting and working alone or with only one other person. Division of labour was introduced in the metal mines after the adoption of mechanical drills in the late 19th century. Miners were divided into drillers and muckers, or ore loaders, but the smaller mines tended to continue to hire general miners.

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Conclusion:

Although issuing from the public domain, the riches of Canada's mines did make a few men wealthy, including Noah Timmins. The workers, however, never managed to extract a substantial share of the profits and dividends. They, however, remained actors in their own right in history -- not only by negotiating wages above the Canadian average, but by often leaving to seek better jobs when they were not happy with their conditions. Nature also played a considerable role by reminding us that, unlike other industries that have several sources of raw materials, mining depends on a non-renewable resource that is soon depleted.

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