Zigarlick offers observations on mining in Canada’s North

“I’m now retired but busier than ever,” John Zigarlick, former president of Echo Bay Mines (TSE), told a recent luncheon meeting of the Toronto Branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM).

Involved with Echo Bay since the earliest days, Zigarlick started off as manager of purchasing and personnel in 1971. At that time, Echo Bay operated the Port Radium silver mine on the shores of Great Slave Lake, N.W.T. In 1977, he became president and chief executive officer of the company and it was Zigarlick who convinced IU International, then the parent of Echo Bay, to acquire the Lupin property and bring it into production.

“It was the Hunt brothers who got us going on Lupin,” Zigarlick said. “They (Texas silver speculators Bunker, Lamar and Herbert Hunt) were attempting to get a corner on the silver market. We timed our contracts for future delivery just right and made a $29-million gain. The silver price plummeted soon afterwards.” (Silver reached an all-time high of US$49.45 per oz. in January, 1980).

Zigarlick illustrated his talk with slides which brought to life the rigorous conditions under which the Lupin mine was built. By the time construction was finished in 1982, every pound of cargo from ball mills to toilet paper had been flown in from Yellowknife, 250 miles distant.

The job was undertaken by two aircraft, a Lockheed Hercules C-130 and a Convair 640, flying round-the-clock, seven days a week. Together they freighted in a total of 32,000 tons. The Hercules still holds a world record, hauling 24,000 tons of cargo in a single 12-month period.

Scarcely to be forgotten by the construction crews was that much of the work, concrete pouring included, was done in temperatures down to minus 40 C with an accompanying Arctic wind.

Since 1983, Lupin has been served by a 372-mile winter road. It is operable for 10 weeks every year beginning in February. During that time, all of Lupin’s fuel and most of the heavy items, such as ball-mill grinding media, are brought in by tractor train.

Confirming what most people who have seen a large-scale map of the Northwest Territories would believe, 330 miles (or 89%) of the road is over water. Once the ice is three feet thick, construction crews start out from either end with snow ploughs. They clear the lake surfaces and six weeks later the first tractor-trailer convoy is ready to move. Building a winter road each year is expensive, but the savings over air freight are considerable and run into the millions of dollars.

Zigarlick believes these forms of bulk haulage and the utilization of Echo Bay’s extensive experience are the keys to developing the Canadian Arctic. And with the Izok Lake property of Metall and Minnova showing all the potential of a major copper-zinc producer, plans for a deep-sea port on Coronation Gulf are in the offing.