EDITORIAL & OPINION — ODDS ‘N’ SODS — Tying up loose ends

When I was a mining inspector in northern Ontario in 1916, the Northern Pyrites mine was one of the operations I was responsible for. It lay 20 miles west of Sioux Lookout, near the Manitoba border, and about 3 miles south of the railroad track.

The ore was transported from the loading bins at the track by aerial tram buckets. The mine shipped about 70,000 tons yearly to iron and sulphur recovery plants in the United States. The surface plant was in good shape, but not the mine, as there was loose hangingwall all over the place.

The superintendent was not around when I arrived for the inspection, so I ordered the two worst stopes to be shut down until they had been properly scaled. The mine captain promised to have it done, and to keep at it in the future.

When I got back to Sudbury three days later, I found a 3-page letter written by the mine’s superintendent. The gist of the letter was that I evidently knew little of mining, that the rock I called loose was not, and that scaling would dilute his ore. He concluded by telling me that he was starting to operate these stopes again.

I wired back that I was taking the first train to his mine, and ordered him to keep all men out of those stopes until I got there. I added that he would do well to study the Ontario Mining Act and learn what powers a mine inspector had under it.

When I arrived, I met a very haughty and annoyed man. He started to tell me off, but I told him to hold his conversation until I tried some scaling.

I got two 20-ft. scaling bars made and asked a couple of husky Finnish miners to use them. The superintendent, the mine captain, the Finns and I then went to the stopes. The Finns went to work under my direction and, in minutes, had tons of loose rock scaled down. I turned to a very red-faced superintendent and told him to speak his piece. He apologized for what he had written and said. I stayed for three days, until the bad ground had been properly scaled. During my next visit, all was well.

— The preceding is an excerpt from A Mining Trail: 1902-1945. The author, who retired in 1945, was a manager of the Dome mine in Porcupine, Ont.