Maclean’s Magazine – August 15, 1951

Lindsley is a rare combination of the four “musts” of mine-making success.

The first “must,” and Lindsley’s greatest asset, is his phenomenal insight into problems of geology and vein structure.

Second, he has an uncanny sense of economics and financing.

Third, Lindsley, though self-effacing in his personal life, is a striking contrast as a businessmen. He is willing to gamble hard and boldly with million-dollar stakes and long odds.

And fourth, he can work hard, physically and mentally, with a power of concentration so keen that he is amusingly absent-minded at times regarding matters outside his business affairs in which he has no interest.

Knack for Rock Jigsaws

Lindsley’s ability to work out complex problems of geological structure and decide whether a property is a potential mine or just another “teaser” has become a legend in Canadian mining circles. But he has made mistakes. For example, he pulled out of Red Lake, Ontario, in its early days because he was convinced the area had no promise, then had to watch with embarrassment as it developed into one of Canada’s richest gold camps.

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A shy, elderly and virtually anonymous man named Thayer Lindsley personally controls a fabulous international kingdom of gold, silver, copper, zinc and iron. With a genius for geology and finance he has made millions but he has never got around to buying a car.

Maclean’s Magazine – August 15, 1951

The financial pages of Canadian newspapers in the past few months have heralded the discovery of new high-grade ore at Giant Yellowknife, Canada’s lusty gold-producing youngster of the Northwest Territories; they have announced that United Keno, the Yukon’s big silver-lead-zinc producer, chalked up a two-and-a-half-million-dollar profit in 1950; that Falconbridge Nickel of Sudbury and its expanding overseas refinery in Norway will spend millions of dollars to boost output for defense; the “big two” of Canadian mining exploration, Ventures Ltd. and Frobisher Ltd. are pushing the search for titanium in Quebec, uranium in northern Saskatchewan, iron in British Columbia.

Mining editors have headlined a proposed thirty-three-million-dollar project to develop a fabulous copper-cobalt property in Uganda; they have announced that an American firm will reopen ancient silver mines in Greece; that Latin America’s biggest gold mine, the La Luz of Nicaragua, has acquired substantial interests in a Californian tungsten mine, and in promising mining properties of the Philippines, Costa Rica, Honduras and the state of Nevada.

There have been reports too of an exciting iron discovery in the western Sahara, of a Venezuelan move to expropriate the Guyana gold mine, and of mounting production from Southern Rhodesia’s Connemara gold mine.

It is almost inconceivable, yet every one of these enterprises is directed and financially controlled by one person, a reclusive mystery man whose genius for evading the limelight is exceeded only by his genius for geology and mining finance. He is Thayer Lindsley, undisputed No. 1 figure in Canadian mining, who carved out Canada’s biggest mineral empire and then went on to create another international empire just as great.

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This profile came from the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame honours the mine finders and developers who helped develop our northern and rural regions and created enormous wealth for the country. For more exciting profiles on the individual who made Canada a global mining powerhouse, go to: http://www.halloffame.mining.ca/halloffame/

Thayer Lindsley, the father of such mining giants as Falconbridge Ltd., Ventures Ltd. and Frobisher, has been described as the greatest mine finder of all time.

Not only did he found Falconbridge, a multinational organization ranked now among the largest mining companies in the world, but throughout his long and extraordinarily dedicated career, Lindsley either found or was involved in the development of such other famous Canadian mining names as Sherritt Gordon, Giant Yellowknife, Canadian Malartic, United Keno Hill, Lake Dufault and Opemiska Copper, Connemara in Southern Rhodesia and Whim Creek in Australia.

His geological and creative genius touched the fortunes of perhaps more than 185 companies in all.

In a book on exploration he published in 1966, he aptly described the kind of attributes that made he himself a giant among mining men: “To be a successful mine finder,” he said, “one must have determination, knowledge, tenacity, a rugged constitution to withstand the rigors of outdoor life, and enjoy overcoming obstacles of every description. Also, a little dash of imagination and enthusiasm is helpful.”

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This article was written by former Sudbury lawyer and MPP in October, 1977, in response to the then recent massive layoffs of 2,800 local workers by Inco. Ironically, some of the issues in his column will resonate with the recently laid off Xstrata workers in February 2009. The more things change, the more they stay the same! – Stan Sudol

Once upon a time Local 6500 of the United Steelworkers of America was the vehicle for economic security of 18,000 hourly rated workers in Sudbury. Those were the salad days of high employment which marked feverish exploitation of the magnificent geological structure disposed, it is said, on the Sudbury basin by a vast errant meteor a couple of billion years ago.

It hosts 14 metals and the one most talked about is nickel and that is probably why the complex came to be known as The International Nickel Company of Canada Limited. But it is now an age of efficiency, the acronym is its phylactery, and the name perforce has been shortened to Inco Ltd.

Dave Patterson, young in years and not yet hardened against the realities of life, is president of the union, which by slow and steady attrition numbers only 11,000 these days.

As one listens to him speak in public one senses that his idealism is intact. He conveys genuinely and humanely the reflection of sorrow and uncertainty which beset 2,800 workers and their families who have received an impersonal slip attached to their time cards which told them tersely that their jobs no longer existed.

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The following profile was originally published in the South Side Story – a Sudbury weekly paper on January 2005.

He was called the “northern gadfly” and was one of Sudbury’s most flamboyant and successful criminal lawyers.

Elmer was born in Cobalt and began his law practice in Sudbury after completing his studies and serving in the Royal Canadian Navy. He ran in the provincial election of 1959 and was elected liberal member of the Ontario Legislature. He was defeated by Bud Germa in the 1977 election and by Floyd Laughren in 1981.

Elmer had a lot to say about everything and no one has been able to match his speeches in the legislature. The press, who spent their time listening to so many boring speeches in the legislature, were all ears when Elmer spoke.

Whether they agreed with him or not, Elmer’s eloquence made the newspapers more often than not. When word got around the legislature that Elmer was giving a speech, people would start flocking to listen because they knew he would always have something interesting to say. In fact, one of his speeches was used as a test for people who were applying for a job at Hansard (the official record keepers). They were required to edit and transcribe it properly in order to get the job.

As can be expected, Elmer had a lot of opinions on a lot of subjects that ranged from comments made on the official dress of judges and lawyers (he thought the black robes should be discontinued because he thought they made the judges and lawyers look like Batman) to his belief that Canada should abolish its ties with the monarchy. What matters is that his colourful speeches, inundated with his great sense of
humour, made people listen and take a greater interest.

Sudbury’s labour movement had its official birth on March 10, 1944, with the certification of Mine Mill Local 598, after a tumultuous gestation that was not without bloodshed. According to local labour lore, the triumph of union organizers after decades of failure stemmed directly from an equally historic and bitter defeat only a few years earlier: the crushing of the Mine Mill certification strike in the Kirkland Lake gold camp during the winter of 1941-42.

Several of the union’s key organizers headed south to Sudbury following the failure of the four month strike at the fabled Golden Mile in the hopes of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and, in the event, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

The 11,000 hardrock miners, mill, smelter and refinery workers who became trade unionists that March were the newest members of a union with a long and storied history in the hardrock mining camps of North America. Founded originally as the Western Federation of miners in 1893, the union was renamed the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW) in 1916, but it was known to friend and foe alike as simply “The Mine Mill”.

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The summer of 1969 was the beginning of the end of Sudbury’s commanding control of global nickel production. The labour disruptions that summer and fall would impact the industry for the next few decades. The Inco miners went on strike on July 10, 1969 with the Falconbridge workers joining them in the third week of August. They did not settle with until mid-November. The industrial economies of Britain and the U.S., both of which imported almost all of their nickel from Canada suffered greatly.

The London Times headlines screamed “The Nickel Crisis” and “Whitehall and CBI May Soon Declare Nickel Emergency.”  It was the most severe materials shortages both countries had experienced since World War Two. In the U.S. nickel stockpiles had to guarded by armed police to prevent theft. U.S. military production remained unaffected due to the government strategic stockpile.

It was the last time the “Sudbury nickel lion” roared. By bringing U.S. and British industry to their knees the Sudbury workers ensured that billions would be spent over the next few years to finally break their monopoly on this strategic metal.

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The decade ended with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the community in June 1939. It was the first time a reigning British monarch had ever visited Canada, let alone Sudbury. Precedence was broken by allowing the Queen, the first women ever to go underground at the Frood Mine. Traditionally miners thought women would bring bad luck if they were allowed underground. There were a few miners who probably thought the beginning of the Second World War was a result of her visit.

Second World War

Shortly after the second world war started, nickel was one of the first metals to require government allocation. Non-essential use of this strategic material was banned which included most of International Nickel’s civilian markets.

Labour shortages were a constant struggle requiring the company to hire women in its surface operations for the first time in history. Over 1,400 women were hired in production and maintenance jobs for the duration of the war at the Sudbury operations and the Port Colborne refinery.

The labour shortages also finally allowed a permanent union to be established. Inco’s nickel operations were well known to have an extensive system of anti-union spies who ensured any person discussing organization activities would be quickly fired.

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Thomas A. Edison the famous inventor came to Sudbury in 1901 searching for nickel. He was unsuccessful as he didn’t drill deep enough. Years later Falconbridge would develop a mine on this very claim.

The strategic military importance of nickel attracted major American corporations. In 1902 J.P. Morgan of U.S. Steel helped establish the International Nickel Company by combining the Orford Copper Company’s New Jersey refinery with the Canadian Copper Company’s Sudbury mines. Samuel Ritchie was ousted be his partners back in 1891 giving Robert M. Thompson control. Ambrose Monell, who came from U.S. Steel was the first president.

In 1905, Sudbury nickel production surpassed that of New Caladonia for the first time and would continue it stranglehold on the world’s largest supplies of nickel until the late 1970s.

The growing importance of Sudbury and all of northern Ontario was formally recognized by the provincial government of Premier James Whitney (1905-1914) by appointing Sudbury businessman and former mayor  Frank Cochrane as the province’s first northern cabinet minister. He served as the as the provincial minister of lands, forests and mines from 1905 to 1911. At the turn of the last century northern Ontario’s vast resources were supplying about 25 per cent of Queen’s Park revenues.

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Since the beginning of mankind, access to important mineral deposits for economic or military applications have changed the destinies of entire civilizations.

The rich gold mines of Thrace gave Alexander the Great the enormous wealth to bankrole a powerfull army and establish one of the greatest empires the world had ever seen. Ancient Chinese metalurgical expertise with iron and steel allowed the Middle Kingdom to become a powerful military and economic force during the prosperous Han dynasty.

For much of the twentieth century, the nickel mines of Sudbury were not only the principle source of this strategic metal, but also had a disproportionate impact on the industrial and military history of the world.
 
As with all good things, this story begins with a bang. Actually, it was one cosmic explosion and two smaller earth-bound blasts. The first happened about 1.8 billion years ago when a massive ten kilometer wide meteor, wider than Mount Everest, and traveling at about 75 km per second, collided with the earth at a site roughly 400 km north of present day Toronto. The impact, equal to the force of about 10 billion atomic bombs, melted the crust and concentrated the nickel-copper mineralization already at the site.

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Northern Life, Greater Sudbury’s community newspaper, gave Republic of Mining.com permission to post this article. www.northernlife.ca (Originally published on September 16, 2008)

Taken with permission from Garson Mine: 100 Years of Mining Excellence, authored by Hans Brasch

1907 – Garson Mine came into existence, purchased by the Mond Nickel Company. Development work began on a vertical shaft, six by 14 feet. The shaft was sunk to a depth of 225 feet and opened up at the 100- and 200-foot levels. Workforce average (WA) – 100.

1910 – No. 1 shaft was deepened to 600 feet. Production – 70,004 tonnes of ore. WA – 250.

1914 – No. 1 shaft was sunk to 870 feet. The miners dry-house was enlarged and several other buildings were built during the year. Production – 123,143 tonnes of ore. WA – 420.

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Northern Life, Greater Sudbury’s community newspaper, gave Republic of Mining.com permission to post Laurel Myers’ article. www.northernlife.ca (Originally published on September 16, 2008)

LMYERS@NORTHERNLIFE.CA

Hans Brasch has been an avid photographer since the time he was 16. What started as a hobby, developed into a passion and a means by which to keep the history of mining alive.

At the age of 76, Brasch has now compiled three books, documenting the past 100 years of mining in the Sudbury basin. The books – Structure and Operation of the Steelworkers, Mining: Then and Now in The Sudbury Basin, and Garson Mine: 100 years of Mining Excellence – are a mixture of maps, timelines, general information and photography, courtesy of the author, that show an evolution underground from a miner’s perspective.

The retired miner, who spent 40 years – from 1952- 1992 – working in nearly all of the most hazardous underground jobs at Vale Inco’s Levack Mine, admitted the pictures took a bit of undercover work.

“At that time, we weren’t really supposed to take pictures (in the mine),” he said, explaining he used to sneak his camera into the mine with him. “But I’m glad I did. I recorded a very nice history.” Despite his camera being bulky with a big light on it, the private eye, of sorts, was
able to document Inco’s ever changing past.

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Northern Life, Greater Sudbury’s community newspaper, gave Republic of Mining.com permission to post Laurel Myers’ article. www.northernlife.ca (Originally published on September 16, 2008)

LMYERS@NORTHERNLIFE.CA

Mining isn’t what it used to be. Ninety-two-year-old Harvey Jarrett was part of the mining evolution. In 1945, he developed the first and only underground sand-fill plant at the time.

Dave Duncan, present superintendent of Garson Mine, explained a sand-fill plant is actually located only 90 feet below the surface, and is still in use today.

“We take in aggregate material (sand) from the pit across the road,” Duncan said. “There is cement silo on surface where we mix the sand with cement and water, then it flows down a funnel into a pipe a fills our stopes.”

Stopes are filled when they can no longer be mined, and are used as support to drill other stopes. After being a pilot in the war for three years, Jarrett returned to the Sudbury area and began work at the Creighton Mine as a mining engineer. He later moved to the Garson and Frood Mines.

“I did all the layouts,” he said. “This place (Garson) is unique. Garson was having a cave-in and it was very serious. “It was going to break through under the lake, and that would have been the end of the mine,” he continued. The supervisor at the time was trying to figure out how to save the place, Jarrett explained. “I happened to be standing there. I put my underground clothes on and just started looking around to find where I could find some fill. There was a sand plant nearby.”

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Northern Life, Greater Sudbury’s community newspaper, gave Republic of Mining.com permission to post Laurel Myers’ article. www.northernlife.ca (Originally published on September 16, 2008)

LMYERS@NORTHERNLIFE.CA

Vale Inco marked a century of operations at Garson Mine on Sept. 5. Company officials, local dignitaries, United Steelworkers Local 6500 representatives and Garson Mine employees, both past and present, were on hand to celebrate the milestone.

“For over a century now, Garson Mine has been producing high value ore that is vital to the ongoing success of our operations,” said Murilo Ferreira, president and chief executive officer of Vale Inco, in a news release.

“Not only has Garson Mine enjoyed continued success in production, it has also proven itself to be a leader in health and safety, and we are very proud of that.” In 1907, the first shaft at Garson Mine was sunk 225 feet from the surface, and in 1908, production for the mine began at a rate of 200 tonnes of ore per day. Today, with 253 employees and a shaft depth of 4,200 feet, Garson Mine produces 2,300 tonnes of high-value ore daily.

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Oiva Saarinen is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Geography at Laurentian University. He has published many articles on Sudbury’s past and is author of Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Historical Geography of the Finns in the Sudbury Area. This article was originally published in Ontario History/Volumn LXXXII, Number 1/March 1990.
 
OIVA SAARINEN

Towards a Self-Reliant Community

In 1984 Sudbury was chosen by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Government of Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs as an international case study of a declining metropolis that had made a successful urban-economic adjustment after a period of decline. The study confirmed that the Sudbury region had overcome many of the obstacles it had inherited from the 1970s and was on the path towards a more sustainable future.52  The report, however, dealt largely with events that had taken place during the previous decade and devoted considerable attention to political factors. This paper asserts that other long-and short-term factors need to be emphasized as well if the basis for this transitional phase is to be more fully appreciated. In fact, many of the fundamental preconditions for this rapid adjustment from decline towards revitalization and sustainability already existed as far back as the 1950s.

For example, after 1951 the size of the region’s population was unique among Canadian resource-based economies. The foundations for the City of Sudbury as a central-place, already well established during the 1950s and 1960s, were strengthened considerably in the ensuing decade. The post-war birth of a white-collar class and its growing influence stimulated fundamental changes to the economic, political, and socio-cultural order. These three long-term preconditions were complemented by four more recent impulses: creative political leadership at the local and regional levels, financial assistance from the two senior levels of government, increases in productivity by Inco and Falconbridge, and finally, the creation of forward and backward linkages within the mining industry.

In the dynamics of the current metamorphosis phase, community size has been of paramount importance. According to the 1986 census, the Regional Municipality of Sudbury supported a population of more than 152,000. While this figure does not approach the 250,000 often proposed as the minimum for community sustainability, it nevertheless acted as a brake to slow down the decline. The fact that Sudbury was a declining metropolis gave it considerable influence with the provincial and federal governments. Arguing that “no nation is so affluent that it can afford to throwaway a major city,” Sudbury used this political leverage to its fullest advantage. 53

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