Mining in Canada

Mining Area #1 - Elliot Lake It is near Sudbury.

Uranium mining began in 1953 …mines closed in 1959 and re-opened in 1970 when Uranium became useful for Nuclear power plants. It is now closed again.

Uranium - first used for Weapons of Mass Destruction - later used for Electricity generation. Canada produces 12% of the world’s Uranium

Mining for Uranium uses the UNDERGROUND METHOD 1. The Headframe is above ground has …. Elevator motors, ventilation systems, air compressors, generators and conveyors.

A Headframe supplies all of the power and essential clean air for the many people working underground

After descending down the shaft in the elevator (Cage) … Exit the CAGE and move down a DRIFT (adit) Electrical and Pnuematic lines supply power

DRIFTS (adits) are coated in traffic areas Gas detectors, helmets and lamps for safety

Ceilings are drilled to attach wire mesh Bolts and wire mesh are attached coating is later sprayed to prevent falling rock in busy areas.

Pneumatic (air) powered drilling In Stope areas, holes are made to insert explosives

Pneumatic drilling Much maintenance is required

Pneumatic lines

SCOOPTRAM … is a Low profile, gas powered vehicle. It is assembled piece by piece. Used to move ore within mine – can be remote controlled.

Can also be operated by a person – The SCOOPTRAM OPERATOR This is a step up from the MUCKER job

Trams also can have no scoops.

Muckers ( labourers ) work in the Stope. Scaling rods knock down loose rock after blasting happens

Uranium Ore Geiger counters can be used to detect radioactivity

Moving Ore from Stope to Chute

Down the Chute to the Crusher

Everything that’s goes down gets crushed

Maintenance is critical An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

Skilled trades are needed Mechanics keep machines from breaking down

Conveyors move crushed rock to Skips

Elliot lake mines were closed in the late 1960’s as demand for Nuclear Bombs dropped. Mines opened again in the mid 1970’s with the expansion of electricity generated from The CANDU Nuclear reactor Now, Uranium has been stock-piled. There is more than enough Uranium for near future needs and the mines have pretty much all closed again.

Elliot Lake is known as a town with a BOOM, A Bust, Another Boom, then a final mining Bust and then a change to a recreation based community.

Mining Area #2 – Sudbury Nickel Mining

Nickel prices have been going up since 2006 These metals make for a more stable economy than Uranium

Canada has 20% of the world’s nickel

Nickel is here because … a large Asteroid hit here over 1 billion years ago. This cracked the Rock and melted metals in the rock. The metals flowed into cracks and are easier to mine.

Many metals worth many dollars are found in this basin Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Silver and Gold are found here.

Shaft and Pit mining are used

Large Smelters were built to separate out impurities from the Ore. Lots of Sulphur was in these impurities. The Super stack was designed to carry air pollutants away when metals were refined in Sudbury

Sudbury was used by NASA to train Astronauts in the nearly dead zone down wind of the Superstack Everyone learned that the solution to pollution is not Dilution

Smelting metals Disposing of slag

Shaft mines are planned from “bottom up”. Lets go on a tour.

Shaft mines are similar to Elliot Lake - Cages carry miners in and out

Ore carts run on rails here

Drifts are labelled enroute to the STOPE

ladders get assembled in the mine

Carts on a pulley system move tools

The trip to the Stope can be a long way Enjoy fresh ventilation air

See the Pneumatic lines

Drifts get re-enforced

Old Drifts get filled with waste material (tailings)

Captive Machines - old ones get buried if they cost too much to maintain

Old drifts are filled in

New drifts get extended into new ore bodies

Portable Pneumatic drillers

Drills are used to recover core samples or to make holes for explosives

An older style detonator is shown here

Some of the Ore is visible Pyrite (fools gold)

Core samples look for new ore beyond the end of the stope

Drill Bits

Scooping Ore at the start of a shift

Ore goes down the Chute (covered by wood) to crushers, conveyors and skip elevators and ultimately to the Headframe conveyors to the smelter.

Mining Area #3 - in Thetford Mines, Quebec

80 Km east of Montreal Mine Big City

Fire proof and fibrous Asbestos is mined using the OPEN PIT METHOD

Asbestos is fibrous and fire-proof but is also a carcinogen (causes Cancer)

Ore is processed and tailings get piled high

From a distance … you can spot a a town with an Open Pit Mine

Large Open Pits are not far from tailing piles

Roads spiral down into the Pits

Fibrous Asbestos is a visible mineral

Open Pits and houses are often very close together

Large Tailing piles have conveyors that add more tailings daily.

Some Piles look like mountains big enough to ski, snowboard or bike on

Map scales show that some of these pits are over 2 kilometres across

Sometimes … homes get moved when the pit widens

The End Some terms to know….. Pneumatic Skip Cage Headframe Drift Shaft Stope Tailing Ore Mucker Crusher Smelting NASA Captive Machine Scooptram Geiger Core Sample Superstack