1. Mining in Canada

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

3. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11. Pneumatic drilling Much maintenance is required

12. Pneumatic lines

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

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

15. Trams also can have no scoops.

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

17. Uranium Ore Geiger counters can be used to detect radioactivity

18. Moving Ore from Stope to Chute

19. Down the Chute to the Crusher

20. Everything that’s goes down gets crushed

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

22. Skilled trades are needed Mechanics keep machines from breaking down

23. Conveyors move crushed rock to Skips

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. Mining Area #2 – Sudbury Nickel Mining

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

28. Canada has 20% of the world’s nickel

29. 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.

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

32. Shaft and Pit mining are used

33. 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

34. 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

35. Smelting metals Disposing of slag

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

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

38. Ore carts run on rails here

39. Drifts are labelled enroute to the STOPE

40. ladders get assembled in the mine

42. Carts on a pulley system move tools

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

44. See the Pneumatic lines

45. Drifts get re-enforced

46. Old Drifts get filled with waste material (tailings)

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

48. Old drifts are filled in

49. New drifts get extended into new ore bodies

50. Portable Pneumatic drillers

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

52. An older style detonator is shown here

53. Some of the Ore is visible Pyrite (fools gold)

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

56. Drill Bits

57. Scooping Ore at the start of a shift

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

59. Mining Area #3 - in Thetford Mines, Quebec

60. 80 Km east of Montreal Mine Big City

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

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

63. Ore is processed and tailings get piled high

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

65. Large Open Pits are not far from tailing piles

66. Roads spiral down into the Pits

69. Fibrous Asbestos is a visible mineral

70. Open Pits and houses are often very close together

71. Large Tailing piles have conveyors that add more tailings daily.

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

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

74. Sometimes … homes get moved when the pit widens

75. 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