Early Mining Ventures in Newfoundland

5 The earliest attempt at mining in Newfoundland occurred 20 km south of St. John’s (Fig. 1), where copper was mined for two years beginning in 1776, and then again for a few months in 1839. A copper discovery in 1857 at Tilt Cove, a small fishing hamlet in Notre Dame Bay, resulted in the opening of the Union Mine in 1864, which led to the discovery of the nearby Betts Cove and Little Bay copper mines in 1875 and 1878, respectively. The opening of the Union Mine and the establishment of the Geological Survey of Newfoundland, also in 1864, provided the impetus for a lively interest in mining enterprises. By 1880, production from mines in the Notre Dame Bay area had made Newfoundland the sixth largest copper producer in the world. However, these mines were all situated near the coastline and the mineral wealth of the interior would not be explored for another 25 years.

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6 The discovery of the important Buchans zinc–lead deposits resulted from efforts to establish a lumber industry in the interior. The exploitation of the forests became a reality in the first decade of the twentieth century following the construction of a railway across the island. The Colonial Government entered into a contract with the Newfoundland Railway Company in 1880 to construct a railway from St. John’s to the copper mining area at Notre Dame Bay (Fig. 1) and construction started the following year. Subsequently, the Government decided not to run the line north from Exploits River to Halls Bay (Fig. 1), but instead extended it west to the east end of Grand Lake, then southwest to Port-aux-Basques. Sir Robert Gillespie Reid (Fig. 2) completed the construction in 1897 after the original contractor defaulted in 1883.

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7 Reid was a highly respected bridge and railroad builder who had completed several important projects in Canada. In return for completing the railroad and undertaking to operate it, he was given over 15 000 square kilometres of land across the island in fee simple (absolute title forever, without limitation or condition). The Reid interests were incorporated as the Reid Newfoundland Company Limited in 1901, which continued to operate the railway until 1923. When the operation of the railway proved unprofitable, the company turned to the development of the timber and mineral resources on their properties. The pine forest around Red Indian Lake seemed particularly attractive and Robert Reid was able to interest Lewis Miller (Fig. 3), a Scottish lumber mer chant, in developing it in 1900.

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8 Lewis Miller’s enterprise was large, consisting of two mills, one at Glenwood on Gander Lake and the other at Millertown on Red Indian Lake (Fig. 1). To gain access to the forest at Red Indian Lake, a 29 km branch rail line was built by Reid in 1900 from the main line at Millertown Junction (Fig. 1) to the site of the new community at Millertown. Miller brought in 60 Swedish lumbermen and their families, and a number of Scotsmen, and built the community of Millertown to accommodate them. However, the pine forest that had looked so attractive proved to be of poor quality, producing less than 50 per cent marketable lumber, and the enterprise had to be abandoned within three years.

9 Sir Robert’s eldest son, William D. Reid, and his partner Harry J. Crowe bought out Lewis Miller. They believed that the Newfound land wood was more suitable for making paper. Crowe was an extraordinarily dynamic promoter and played a major part in initiating the newsprint industry on the island. He quickly set out to enlarge the Miller holdings by purchasing sawmills then operating at Bot-wood, Norris Arm, Gambo, Gander Bay and Point Leamington. These mills were but a means to an end and were kept operating only until they had achieved their primary objective of controlling sufficient forest lands.

10 Crowe then went to London to find new investors, which led him to Alfred C. Harmsworth (Fig. 4) and his younger brother Harold S. Harmsworth (Fig. 5), later to become Lords Northcliffe and Rothermere, respectively. They were early pioneers of tabloid journalism, press barons who published the London Daily Mail newspaper and built what was then the largest periodical publishing empire in the world. They were obtaining their newsprint from Scandinavia and Finland at the time but feared that a European war would interrupt those sources. Therefore, they welcomed this opportunity to acquire a secure alternative source in Newfoundland. Mayson Beeton was dispatched to Newfoundland in 1902 to complete a preliminary investigation and begin negotiations with the Premier, Sir Robert Bond, for the development of timber lands in the Red Indian Lake watershed.

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11 Crowe and Reid incorporated Newfoundland Timber Estates in 1903 to hold their forest lands, while the Harmsworths incorporated the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company Limited (AND) in January, 1905. Within a few days, the two parties signed agreements with the Newfoundland Government that were confirmed on June 15, 1905 by an Act of Parliament titled An Act to Encourage the Manufacture of Pulp & Paper in this Colony. It provided for a 99-year lease of "all the lands, and lands covered by water, situate in the districts adjoining Red Indian and Victoria Lakes in the Island of Newfoundland, which said lands are bounded or circumscribed by the height of land and include the entire area of watershed which from the height of land aforesaid drains either directly or indirectly into the Exploits River at or above a point on that river situate about 20 miles below the outlet of that river from Red Indian Lake . . .; together with, by way of grant, sale or demise, and not of exception, all timber and trees being on the said lands, and also all mines and minerals therein and thereunder." The AND Company was obligated under the terms of the 1905 Agreement to undertake a complete survey of the entire lease area (Fig. 1) within six months.

12 A St. John’s firm, Sullivan and Canning, Chemists and Surveyors, was retained to carry out the initial survey for AND. The 1905 Act had barely received royal assent from the Governor of the Colony when Michael S. Sullivan, who had worked on the engineering staff of the railway, commenced the formidable task of traversing and marking the boundaries of AND lands in the Red Indian and Victoria lakes districts, which were calculated to have an area of approximately 5200 km².

Exploration of the Buchans Area

Buchans Becomes a Mine (1916 – 1931)

35 Harry A. Guess (Fig. 12), a Hartington, Ontario native, graduated from Queens University’s School of Mining in 1895 at age 20, and after six years of working at mines in British Columbia and Ontario, he joined the ASARCO in 1901, eventually becoming Vice President in charge of the Mining Department. On July 13, 1916, he wrote from his New York Office to William Scott of AND as follows: "Some friends of mine, familiar with Newfoundland, were recently telling me that your Company, Terra Nova Properties Limited, had a large body of good grade though complex ore opened up, but now idle, as I recall, at Buchans River Mine sort upon which we could take a long term lease on terms that would be mutually satisfactory. Wish you would let me know about this at your convenience."

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36 Scott replied from his office in Grand Falls by return mail, inviting Guess to discuss a lease directly with the TNP head office in London. Thus began a business relationship between the English newspaper barons and tycoons of the American copper industry that would bring great rewards to both parties.

37 ASARCO had been formed in 1899 through the consolidation of a large number of smelting and refining companies. In 1901, the powerful Guggenheim family, led by Daniel Guggenheim [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6261/Guggenheim-Daniel.html], acquired sufficient company shares to gain controlling interest (hostile takeover), creating an integrated mining, smelting and refining company that produced copper, lead, zinc, silver and a host of by-product metals. The Guggenheims, using their commercial acumen, guided the company to phenomenal growth in the ensuing years. According to Marcosson (1949), the Guggenheims developed ASARCO from a firm with gross annual revenues of $82 million to $390 million, while profits grew from $2.9 million to $27 million per year between 1902 and 1918.

38 ASARCO maintained the necessary facilities and skilled personnel for on-going investigations of metal-lurgical processes to enhance the extraction of metals from ores and to perfect its smelting and refining techniques. ASARCO carried out its first experimental work on the complex Buchans ore at its ore testing facility in the Tri-State Lead–Zinc District at Flat River, Missouri. Guess asked AND to send approximately 10 kg of Buchans ore to this facility, operated by ASARCO’s subsidiary Federal Mining and Smelting Co., to determine if separate lead and zinc concentrates of commercial grade could be produced. Incidentally, Guess was also Vice President and Managing Director of this company. However, the complexity of the ore soon became apparent and, despite exhaustive testing using traditional jigging methods and fine grinding, the best lead concentrate grade that was achieved was only 9%.

39 When ASARCO began to test the Buchans ore in 1916, the art of froth flotation had been around for about 15 years (Dewitt 1940). Flotation is a process of ore concentration involving several steps:

1. The ore is crushed to liberate the mineral particles from the accompanying waste rock (gangue);
2. The crushed ore is suspended in a mixture of water and suitable chemical reagents within a tank (flotation cell), which has air injected at the bottom while the entire mixture is agitated; and
3. Mineral particles adhere to the rising bubbles in the mixture and are skimmed off at the top of the flotation cell.

The concentrate of mineral particles is then de-watered for shipping or subjected to further processing to enhance the grade of the concentrate. At that time, however, froth flotation was only being used to separate sulphide minerals from gangue minerals because most of the chemical reagents required to separate individual sulphide minerals were not yet known. Hence, it was only useful with simple ores of copper, zinc, or lead in which one of these metals was present to the exclusion of all others, or ores in which other metals were only present in negligible amounts. Sphalerite had proven to be a particularly difficult mineral to deal with and was generally regarded as a nuisance by metallurgists at the lead and copper smelters, where it routinely incurred a penalty rather than a credit.

40 According to Dewitt (1940), froth flotation advanced to allow separation of individual sulphide minerals between 1912 and 1924, as indicated by the following: "In 1912 Lowry and Greenway discovered and patented the use of bichromates as a depressant in the flotation of galena. … In 1913 Bradford working with the accumulated tailings and slimes at Broken Hill, Australia, discovered that the addition of copper sulphate increases the floatability of sphalerite. …Perkin in 1921 introduced the use of very slightly soluble organic flotation reagents containing trivalent nitrogen, divalent sulphur, and other organic compounds. In 1924 Keller, working for the Minerals Separation Company, patented the use of less than one per cent of a soluble organic compound, particularly the xanthates, as a mineral flotation reagent…The work of Perkin and Keller is particularly significant in that it marks the point at which mineral flotation became a chemical science."

41 As a result, ASARCO finally achieved a satisfactory commercial separation of the lead and zinc minerals in the Buchans ore in January 1925. The difficult and complex Buchans sulphides could now be milled to produce separate marketable concentrates of lead and zinc. The initiative and determination of H. A. Guess had finally been rewarded. Flushed with this success, he wasted no time in pursuing an agreement with the mine owners to jointly mine the deposit and pursue new discoveries.

42 Mr. G.F. Laycock, who had shut the mine down in 1911 after many fruitless attempts to prove its viability, was again working at Grand Falls. When he heard about ASARCO’s metallurgical success, he booked passage on the first ship sailing from St. John’s to New York and met with Guess on June 19, 1925 to negotiate an agree -ment between their companies. Anglo-Newfoundland, through its subsidiary TNP, was the undisputed owner of the mining property and of the surrounding mineral rights for many kilometres. ASARCO possessed the technical knowledge and experience required to mine, mill and market the ore and to apply the best exploration techniques in the search for additional deposits.

43 The plan proposed by Guess was a 40 year contract under which ASARCO would have exclusive control and management of operations, while profits, after reimbursement of equipment costs, would be divided on a 50:50 basis. ASARCO would develop and equip the property and expend not less than $30 000 in the first year, and not less than $50 000 in the second and each succeeding year, until the mine was running profitably. Before deciding to go ahead with the contract, ASARCO would be allowed 120 days to investigate and sample the property.

44 It remained for Laycock to obtain the approval of AND but he left New York confident that his mine would soon be reopened. Many cables were exchanged between Grand Falls and London over the next few weeks to clarify all matters. The company requested that the sum of $100 000, representing the amount already expended by AND in develop ing the mine, be reimbursed before splitting profits. They also requested that Gov -ernment royalties amounting to 5% of net profits be deducted before division of profits to the contracting parties. These modifications were agreed to by Guess in a cable from Peru. Laycock immediately began preparation for the examination by ASARCO.

45 On October 15, 1925, mining engineer J.L. Baragwanath became the first ASARCO representative to visit the site. He re-sampled the ‘vein’ and ‘conglomerate’ deposits, conducted a preliminary power survey of Buchans River and investigated the economics of putting the mine into operation. He concluded that the tonnage in the Buchans mine was suffi cient to reimburse his company for initial capital expenditures, and to yield a profit over a period of two to three years. He believed that there was a fair chance of locating either a continuation of the known deposit or another similar lens and that the ‘conglomerate’ deposit might develop into an orebody of considera ble importance. He recommended to Guess that the Newfoundland Government be approached for permission to import machinery and construction materials duty free and, if such a concession could be secured, he further recommended that ASARCO enter into a formal agreement with AND and its subsidiary TNP. The formal agreement was signed on March 18, 1926 with only one notable change: the length of the agreement was reduced from 40 to 25 years. Possibly by way of a trade-off, a new clause was added that would prove to be of key importance to ASARCO. Its area of interest was extended to include any new mines found within a radius of 32 km from the Buchans River deposit.

Surviving the Great Depression

71 Buchans had the huge misfortune of beginning production just before the start of the Great Depression. Metal prices began falling at the end of 1929 and had dropped by half by mid 1930 compared to the fall of 1928, when production began. The tumble continued until lead and zinc prices bottomed in February 1933 at a third of their 1928 values, i.e. $0.016/lb ($0.035/kg) for lead, $0.02/lb ($0.044/kg) for zinc, and $0.25/oz for silver, less than half of its previous value. For Buchans, the situation was further aggravated because its concentrates were marketed under London sterling quotations via European smelter contracts, and the British Pound fell from $4.85 to $3.30 in terms of U.S. dollars during the period from 1928 to 1933. The net smelter value of Buchans ore rose from $10.12 per tonne at the outset of production, to an average value of $12.81 in 1929, before falling to $5.53 in 1930, $3.58 in 1931 and $3.01 in 1932. Since the cost to mine and mill a ton of ore had been $5.59 per tonne in 1929, it became increasingly obvious that the production cost would have to drop if the mine were to remain profitable.

72 By 1929, drilling had defined the limits of the Oriental deposit and total proven ore reserves had increased to more than 5.4 million tonnes, which represented nearly 40 years of life at existing mill capacity. To reduce the unit cost of production to match the declining value of the ore, it was essential to double the milling rate to approximately 1100 tonnes per day. Guess, Laycock and Williams had given a great deal of study to enlarging the hydroelectric plant to support mill expansion, but ultimately decided that the best option was to purchase power from the International Power and Paper Company (IPP), which had built a large hydroelectric installation a few years earlier at Deer Lake, 77 km away (Fig. 1). A 20-year contract was signed in May 1930, under which IPP built the power line at BMC’s expense.

73 In February 1930, P.W. George replaced Ward Williams as mine manager. George had previously held senior positions at ASARCO opera tions in Idaho and Missouri and was an expert in coordinating mine production with market conditions. In May of 1930, an appropriation of $1.4 million was formally approved in New York for the expansion of the mill and other facilities, including $250 000 for the construction of the new transmission line to Deer Lake. This expansion was intended to achieve economy of scale. At the same time, every effort was made to increase productivity, which improved from 1.43 tonnes of ore milled per man shift in 1929, to 1.75 tonnes in 1930, and to 1.88 tonnes in the first six months of 1931.This resulted in a reduction of total operating costs from $5.59 per tonne in 1929, to $4.34 in 1930, and to $3.77 in the first six months of 1931.

74 The mill expansion was completed by the end of 1930 and the rest of the program by July 1931, the planned date of completion (Figs. 16, 17). The average milling rate in the second half of 1931 was 1043 tonnes per day compared to 499 in the first half of 1931. Productivity increased from 1.88 to 3.70 tonnes per man shift. Unit costs were reduced from $3.77 to $2.40 per tonne. Including interest charges at 6% per annum and the $500 000 spent by AND prior to 1926, the total capital expenditure to the end of 1931 was approximately $7 million. Despite the difficulties encountered in the first three years of production, an operating profit was realized, although only a small percentage of the scheduled amortization of capital cost could be met. The indicated ore reserve on December 31, 1931 amounted to approximately 6.2 million tonnes, of which 5.5 million was classified as proven. Milling capacity, after expansion, was approximately 408 000 tonnes per year, for a projected mine life of 15 years.

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75 The workforce at Buchans fared much better than most Newfoundland communities during this difficult period, as full employment was maintained throughout. However, there were salary cuts of 10% for senior staff in February 1932 and a cut of 10% in salaries and wages for all employees earning more than $3 per day in 1932.

76 Throughout the remainder of the 1930s, production was maintained at full capacity. At the Lucky Strike mine, open-pit (glory-hole) mining (Fig. 18) was conducted during the summer, in places where glacial cover was less than 30 m in thickness, and underground mining from sub-level stopes was conducted during the winter. Where the overburden was too deep for surface mining, the ore was mined with vertical cut and fill stopes. After the limits of the Oriental deposit were determined with a drilling program in 1930, a 2100 m tunnel was driven eastward from the Lucky Strike shaft to the Oriental mine (Fig. 9) between March 1932 and October 1934. This provided underground haulage between the Oriental mine and the Lucky Strike mill. A new 126 m shaft for handling men and supplies at Oriental was started in May of 1932 and completed in October of the following year. Production from Oriental commenced in January of 1935.

77 The success of the Buchans operation in the early days depended upon metallurgical improvements, including the duplication, under conditions of full-scale production, of the test results that ASARCO had achieved in the lab. Two factors inhibited optimum metallurgical recoveries. One was the refractory character of some of the near-surface ore caused by oxidation of sulphide minerals by ground-water moving through fractures. Second, much of the ore was so fine-grained that galena and sphalerite could not be completely separated by grinding to the practical limit of approximately 100 microns. The character of the sulphide intergrowths varied considerably in different parts of the orebody, even within individual stopes, and variations of several percent in zinc, lead and iron content of the mill feed were common. Fine-grained parts of the deposit having a high pyrite and chalcopyrite content were also particularly refractory. Some of the more highly oxidized ore at the bedrock surface was stripped and stockpiled for future treatment. Although the complex Buchans ore continued to test the skill of the milling experts, expectations were exceeded after a few years of aggressive study and experimentation.

78 Many improvements in the science and art of milling complex base-metal sulphides were pioneered at Buchans, and the Buchans concentrator was noted for its complicated and sometimes innovative processes. In 1935, however, intensive laboratory research led to a major metallurgical development that used sulphur dioxide gas to produce a separate copper concentrate. Progress was also made in the recovery of gold and silver in the ore. In December 1931, gravity concentration was introduced to produce a gold–iron concentrate. It was improved by the addition of tabling in 1933 and the use of corduroy launders in 1934. By 1936, regular production from the Buchans operation consisted of separate concentrates of copper, lead and zinc, plus a gravity concentrate. The average metal content of the first three products was approximately 24% copper, 59% lead and 54% zinc. The gravity concentrate, which was discontinued in 1976, averaged 9.5 ounces of gold and 49 ounces of silver per ton. Readers who are interested in detailed information concerning milling practices at Buchans are referred to technical papers by Hellstrand and George (1934) and Maher and Powell (1965).

79 As world economies began a slow recovery after the depression, metal prices gradually improved. The net smelter value of Buchans ore rose from a low of $3.01 per tonne in 1932 to $9.07 in 1939, but the rise in the cost of production was much less, from $2.40 per tonne after the mill expansion in 1931, to $4.30 per tonne by 1939. The result was that earnings from the mining operation had fully repaid the capital investment, including interest charges, by the end of 1940. Additional accumulated earnings, after capital recovery, amounted to approximately $5.5 million, which was shared equally between BMC (ASARCO’s subsidiary) and TNP.

80 In September 1939, Newfoundland automatically joined Great Britain in World War II and the effects of the war were felt in many ways at Buchans. After metal production was declared a strategic priority, marketing was managed by special government agencies and shipments of lead and zinc to the traditional markets in Belgium and Germany were terminated. Although de mand for copper, lead and zinc was brisk, the sale of these commodities was subject to price controls and other official restraints. Zinc concentrates were sold to the British Metal Controller in London and copper and lead to the Metals Reserve Company in Washington. Buchans was also handicapped by soaring shipping rates and the uncertain hazards of maritime shipments. During the first three years of the war, zinc concentrates, based on 51.5% zinc, were sold for $11.81 per tonne aboard ship at Botwood, which was equivalent to approximately $0.01/lb ($0.022/kg) for the metal. Copper and lead were also sold at reduced prices. The net smelter value of Buchans ore dropped from an average of $9.07 per tonne in 1939 to $5.74 in 1940.

81 Despite the low prices received for its products, the mining industry in North America responded magnificently to the demand for metals and minerals for national defence. Production was pushed to the limit of available resources at Buchans. A record of nearly 440 000 tonnes of ore was mined and milled in 1940, an average of approximately 1200 tonnes per day compared to a rated capacity of 1100 tonnes. This excellent performance was achieved despite shortages of supplies and services. Shortage of manpower was probably the biggest headache because many enlisted in the armed forces, whereas others were attracted to the boom in defence construc tion in Newfoundland and Labrador. Labour turnover peaked in 1945, when a total of 1038 men were hired throughout the year to maintain an average work force of 723.

82 The end of the war in 1945 brought the return of free markets and a dramatic improvement in financial returns and operating conditions for the Company. There was no slackening of demand for most metals, and prices were unprecedented for peacetime. There was also a substantial alleviation of labour shortages. Unfortunately, the good economic times were dimmed by the prospect that the mine would soon run out of ore. The tremendous increase in production as part of the war effort had hastened the depletion of known ore reserves, which had declined to 1.8 million tonnes by the end of 1945, equivalent to five years of mine life.

Community Development

83 In the early 1900s, mining towns in isolated areas were created solely to serve the company by providing a stable workforce for the life of the mine. The company built the community and maintained it as long as the economics of the operation permitted. At Buchans, BMC provided housing, municipal services, a hospital, schools, and recreation facilities. The government provided the postal, customs and law enforcement services. Religious organizations built their own churches on land leased from the company. The various shops were operated as independent private business enterprises, also on land leased from the company. Buchans evolved as a true company town and, moreover, since the company held surface rights to the countryside for many miles around, it rigidly prevented any unregulated expansion nearby. The only means of access was via the company-owned railroad, so Buchans was, in effect, a closed company town. Although this arrangement would not be acceptable today, it was a very successful arrangement in the initial two decades for which the town was planned.

84 The construction of the town began early in the spring of 1927. The original sketches for the town layout were made by Williams and Gilchrist at Buchans, and scrutinized, modified and approved by Guess and Goodwin in New York. The much-used trail between the Buchans River prospect and the Lucky Strike mine was established as Main Street (Figs. 19, 20). A pattern of streets running perpendicular and parallel to Main Street was laid out to form rectangular blocks for housing. A feature peculiar in Newfoundland was the provision of nar row service streets at the rear of the rows of cottages, which became known in Buchans as garbage streets. The movement of equipment, particularly during the rush of the construction period, created thoroughfares ankle-deep in mud. To combat this problem the streets were corduroyed and surfaced with waste rock from the mine. A wooden sidewalk was built along the main street, reminiscent of the ‘Old West’.

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85 When production of concentrates commenced in September, 1928, there were 56 housing units in the town, as well as an apartment house, a staff house and several bunkhouses. The school opened in the first week of September 1928 and the hospital opened in January. A town hall and social centre was completed in 1929 along with recreation facilities, including three tennis courts, an athletic field for soccer and baseball, and a ski run on a nearby hill. One of the concentrate storage sheds was equipped and flooded during the winter months as a skating and hockey rink. The three principal religious denominations on the island, The Roman Catholic Church, The Church of England and The United Church, had completed per manent church buildings by the end of 1929. The Salvation Army established a Citadel shortly afterwards.

86 The 1933 Newfoundland Royal Commission Report, generally referred to as the Amulree Report, described the town in the following manner:"The Town of Buchans is remarkable as being one of the few settlements in the interior of Newfoundland. So far removed from the sea and from other towns, the people are thrown to a large extent upon their own resources. The Company has provided them with facilities for education, recreation and amusement, and we were struck by the progressive spirit which prevailed. The town has been attrac tively laid out and is equipped with an excellent water supply, modern drainage and electric light. The Company maintains a school, and there is also a night school for workers in the mine. A cinema theatre serves also as a town hall. There is a flourishing athletic club. A hospital, with a resident medical officer and two nurses, is maintained by the Company. The population of Buchans is about 1000, of whom about 300 are employed in the mine. Wages are good and relations between the employees and the manage ment are excellent. Prices in the stores are high, owing to the distance of the town from the coast and to discriminatory railway freight rates. As at Grand Falls, the high birth-rate at Buchans gives rise to some anxiety. Indeed, the future of the town itself may be said to hang in the balance, since, if no further bodies of ore can be discovered, the mine will be exhausted in 1947. The problem of providing for the coming generation of Newfoundlanders is one to which we have referred elsewhere; the solution of the special problem of Buchans will, it is hoped, be found in the discovery of other workable deposits."

87 Municipal services at Buchans in its first decade were probably the best of any community on the island. All houses were equipped with water and sewage systems and garbage was collected daily. Electricity was supplied at every home. Company regulations aimed at maintaining good hygiene and sanitation standards were rigidly enforced. The company trained and equipped a volunteer fire brigade and installed a network of fire hydrants throughout the town. Facilities for health care and education were also excellent. The community had an upto-date hospital with a full time staff of one doctor and two nurses. The company maintained an all-grade public school with competent teachers, which was steam heated, sanitary, and comfortable in every respect. In 1930, the Catholic Church opened its own school and for a number of years sponsored a night school for adults. Buchans had quickly developed into an orderly and independent community with a full range of services and facilities. It bore little resemblance to the prevailing notion of a mining town.

88 Buchans was a tightly managed and closely regulated company town but there were negative side effects of this arrangement, of which the development of a form of social stratification was probably the most notable and damaging to the community. The population was divided into three groups. Single-status men occupied the bunkhouses that were located at one end of the town; married employees and their families lived in the main central part of the community, whereas senior company staff and management resided with their families in a small area near the mill at the other end of the town. To attract and retain professional personnel from the United States and Canada, the company provided a better level of housing and services than those provided to other householders. Moreover, since these professionals dwelt together in one neighbourhood and did not always share the same background and interests as the other residents, the staff people, not surprisingly, developed their own social clique. The single-status bunkhouse employees, who comprised about half of the total workforce, formed a unique group in the community. A number of them had families but could not obtain accommodation in the town; others preferred to maintain their families in their outport homes, whereas many were unmarried. These employees were transient and lived a care-free lifestyle that was often at variance with the family-oriented values of the others. Integration with the community was naturally difficult. These divisions within the community did not have any serious effect on the quality of life in the early days, but they became a source of rankling aggrava tion as the town became more settled.

New Discoveries (1946 – 1950)

89 The early exploration success achieved by Lundberg and Williams in 1926 had created a mood of optimism that additional orebodies would soon be found, which attracted other mining companies. An initial flurry of feverish prospecting activity resulted in claim-staking on ground bordering AND lands but did not result in any new discoveries. Additional geophysical surveys conducted by Hans Lundberg from 1926 to 1933, and again from 1937 until 1941 also failed to find any additional deposits. Likewise, conventional exploration methods and diamond-drilling programs had also been unsuccessful. The search had also been broadened through geological reconnaissance to the outlying areas. In 1933, an aircraft was employed for the first time at Buchans to study the surrounding area in an attempt to define exploration targets. The phenomenal good fortune of 1926, however, did not repeat itself and the result obtained from the intensive search for new orebodies was negative.

90 As mining proceeded, some additional ore was encoun tered adjacent to the known orebodies but by the end of 1947, reserves had declined by 75%. Exploration drilling underground in the Lucky Strike Mine helped a little to slow down the rate of depletion. Ore reserves at the end of 1931 were approximately 5.5 million tonnes but had dropped to less than 1.4 million tonnes by the end of 1947. However, the mine produced approximately 6.2 million tonnes during this same interval indicating that an additional 2.1 million tonnes had been found after 1931.

91 After a careful review in 1945, ASARCO decided that it had to embark on an intense exploration program to bolster dwindling ore reserves. The search was concentrated in the immediate vicinity of the produc ing mines rather than exploring the outlying areas, and specific exploration targets were singled out for systematic examination within the compressed area. The renewed efforts proved to be timely and well conceived because new orebodies were discovered almost immediately adjacent to Lucky Strike.

The Transformation Period (1950 – 1984)

96 The ore discoveries made between 1947 and 1953 marked the beginning of a new phase in the development of the company and the community of Buchans. In addition to developing the new orebodies for production, BMC also carried out a program of large-scale improvements to its plant. Major projects included a concrete dam across the Buchans River at Sandy Lake, a new central heating plant, and a sand system for backfilling the mine.

97 The town, which had been on the verge of becoming a ghost town, was revitalized by the new ore reserves. The company built new housing units and businesses expanded. In 1957, BMC opened a modern, well-equipped, 20-bed hospi tal; the following year, a branch of the Boys’ Club was organized. The Buchans Lions Club was formed in 1960. A new Salvation Army Citadel and Roman Catholic convent were also built during this period. In addition, the company provided a recreation centre and assisted with the construction of an outdoor swimming pool, and a sailing club was organized on nearby Sandy Lake. A highlight of the era was the establishment of a powerful senior hockey team, the Buchans Miners.

98 Two events occurred within this period that gradually changed Buchans from a transient isolated mining town to a settled community. The first event was the completion of a road link to the provincial highway system. Although location surveys commenced in 1948, the road did not become passable until 1956. The second was the establishment of a subdivision adjacent to the company-administered town (Figs. 24, 25). A new townsite was laid out by the province in 1963 on land provided by the companies (AND and BMC). It was incorpo rated as the Local Improvement District of Buchans and became a municipality with an elected council in 1973. The new housing area became known as the ‘Townsite’ and provided residents with the opportunity to own their own homes and to manage municipal affairs independently of the company. The isolation and closed town atmosphere slowly disappeared.

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99 In the wake of these events, Buchans enjoyed a decade or more of prosperity and relative security. The town had largely overcome its growing pains and became a stable community with residents who were optimistic for the future. The long awaited completion of the Newfoundland part of the Trans-Canada Highway and the paving of the Buchans access highway, plus the establishment of the townsite, brought a new sense of freedom and independence. The mine was producing at full capacity and the financial return was excellent. Houses and surrounding property were well maintained by the standards of the day and BMC was generous in its support of social and recreational activities. During the decade 1960 to 1970, a new modern arena, with artificial ice, was built, streets were paved and a system of storm sewers installed. A new fire-hall and library were provided by the company and a curling rink with club facilities was built with company support. Church properties and schools were expanded and improved. The Lions Club added a children’s play -ground to the existing recreational facilities. The Buchans Miners hockey team, a focal point of community spirit through the long winters, received the moral and financial support of the company. The social life of Buchans became more diver sified and the opening of several bar/lounge facilities was a feature of the times.

100 The Buchans mill continued to operate at rated capacity for many years follow ing the development of the new orebodies. Production from the Lucky Strike mine gradually petered out and terminated with the mining of some glory hole remnants in 1958. Over a life span of 30 years, it produced over 6.3 million tonnes of ore. The Oriental mine continued to produce until 1969. It contributed a total of 3.3 million tonnes during its 35 years of operation. At Old Buchans, the site of the original 1905 discovery, where mining finally began in 1943, the old shaft was used to re-examine the Main orebody but mining was carried out via an underground connection with the nearby Oriental mine. The Conglomerate orebody was mined by open pit. Altogether, nearly 197 000 tonnes of ore came from Old Buchans when mining ceased in 1955.

101 The deeper Rothermere and MacLean orebodies, which produced the bulk of the mill feed over the last thirty years of operation, were more difficult and costly to develop and mine than the relatively shallow Lucky Strike and Oriental orebodies. The mining method was cut-and-fill stoping, followed by pillar removal using the square set method. The voids left after the extraction of the ore were filled with sand from a surface pit that was operated during the summer months. Because of the high grade of the ore, mine planning aimed at 100% extraction. Production costs rose rapidly as mining went deeper. However, metal prices had improved dramatically after World War II and continued strong, so the growth in net smelt er value of the ore outpaced the increasing production cost. Except for some short periods of weak metal prices, the operation enjoyed a period of consistently good profits until the end of the 1960s.

102 By 1970, ore reserves became so de pleted that full production could no longer be maintained. An aggressive exploration program was maintained but it failed to identify any new ore-bodies. This program was not limited to the Buchans area but covered outlying areas totalling some 20 000 km². Several finds of significant mineralization were made in these outlying areas but they were uneconomic to develop because of low tonnages, low grades or inaccessibility. The 1970s saw a gradual decline in mine output in line with diminishing reserves.

103 The decade from 1970 to 1980 was the most turbulent one in Buchans’ fifty year history. The underlying cause was the developing atmosphere of uncertainty that faced the company and the community. By 1971, the life expectancy of the mine was down to seven years and concentrate production was declining while costs were rising rapidly, aggravated by unstable metal prices and spiralling inflation. Although the Buchans operation had an enviable record of labour peace during its first 45 years, these difficulties found expression in growing management–labour confrontation that culminated in two long and bitter strikes in 1971 and 1973.

104 The first strike lasted from June 12 to November 12, 1971 and the second from March 15 to October 2, 1973. The second was the longest and most bitter, only ending after the province agreed to commission an industrial inquiry of BMC’s operation. The disputes were marked by an unprecedented show of union militancy and solidarity. Anti-company sentiment created a tense and fractious atmosphere in the close-knit community, which further emphasized social divisions and was marked by the destruction of com pany property.

105 The 1971 and 1973 strikes were an expression not only of the mine’s economic plight as perceived by the workers, but also the social concerns of the townspeople as a whole. Buchans was still a company town and the concept that the town existed to serve the industry was the guiding principle of company policy. There was no provision in the company’s administration of the community to provide for continuity beyond the closing of the mines. In years past, this was considered the normal and reasonable final chapter of a mining town, and it became the fate of numerous such com munities. However, social attitudes were changing fast, and the resistance of the company to change had contributed to the growing discontent that found an outlet in the two strikes.

106 The original 1928 Agreement between AND (which became Price Newfoundland Pulp & Paper Limited, a subsidiary of Abitibi-Price Inc.) and ASARCO was scheduled to expire on March 17, 1976. It was extended by a new Co-tenancy Agreement that came into force on January 1, 1976. The terms of this agreement reflected the determination of Abitibi-Price Inc. to play a larger role in the development of mineral rights on its land holdings. Under the new agreement, the cotenancy operation was to be managed by an owners’ committee having equal represen tation from the two companies. Abitibi-Price was responsible for exploration programs and ASARCO was responsible for production. The Mineral Resources Division of Abitibi-Price assumed management of all exploration previously supervised by the ASARCO geological staff at Buchans. Abitibi-Price was optimistic that some previously identified mineral de posits within modern trucking distance from the mill could be identified and, therefore, it maintained a vigorous exploration program between 1976 and 1985. It was this fresh and enthusiastic approach that buoyed the hopes for continued mining operations in the community.

107 As the last remnants of the MacLean orebody were extracted, daily mine production was reduced to approximately 300 tonnes per day in June 1980, compared with 1100 tonnes per day in 1978. However, an increase in metal prices and a new exploration program at the bottom of the MacLean mine gave a brief reprieve. The discovery of additional ore, called MacLean Extension, extended the life of the mine to August 1984, when it finally closed after 56 years of production. George Neary was the General Manager at the mine during the closing years and stayed on after the mine closed to manage the ongoing decommissioning of the site and increasingly important environmental programs.

108 The final diluted mill heads amounted to slightly over 16 million tonnes of ore with an average grade of 14.51% Zn, 7.56% Pb, 1.33% Cu, 126 g/t (3.7 oz/ton) Ag and 1.37 g/t (0.04 oz/ton) Au, making Buchans one of Canada’s richest volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits.

The Dénouement

109 In 1985, Abitibi-Price ended the 80-year venture of a forestry company in the mineral business by selling the large area of mineral rights surrounding Buchans to BP Canada Inc. After a period of renewed exploration, which resulted in the discovery of a number of new prospects, BP also announced its plan to exit the mining business and sold the mineral rights to Noranda Inc. in 1991. Noranda continued exploration but subsequently parcelled parts of the ground to junior exploration companies and allowed other areas to return to the Crown. In August of 1995 the mineral rights to most of the immediate Buchans area were opened for staking for the first time and the subsequent staking rush ushered in a new era of competitive mineral exploration by junior exploration companies that continues to this day. Though new discoveries have been elusive, there is currently an initiative to evaluate larger volumes of near-surface ‘low grade’ stringer mineralization (originally discovered by Lundberg) upon which much of the former mine infrastructure once stood.

110 A plant designed to separate barite from mine tailings was built in the late 1970s and it has since continued to operate intermittently under a number of banners, providing employment to a dozen or more Buchaneers. However, most of the skilled miners gradually drifted out of the province after closure of the mine to become integral parts of the Canadian mining scene at places like Hemlo and Manitouwadge in Ontario. However, the mining heritage lives on, as a younger generation works at Teck-Cominco’s Duck Pond Operation, a modern massive sulphide mine, discovered southeast of Red Indian Lake by a Noranda–BP joint venture. With less than 900 residents, the population of Buchans is currently less than a third of what it was in the glory days of the 1950s and 1960s. The proposals to improve road links from Buchans to the Trans-Canada Highway are still the subject of political debate with little concrete progress evident. For now, the town of Buchans is still ‘at the end of the road’.

Regional Geology

112 The island of Newfoundland presents a geological cross-section through the northern part of the Appalachian Orogen and has been divided into four tectonic zones (Fig. 26): from west to east, the Humber, Dunnage, Gander and Avalon zones (Williams 1964). Collectively, these zones record the opening and closing of the Iapetus Ocean in the late Precambrian and early Paleozoic (Williams 1979).

113 The Humber Zone represents the continental margin of Laurentia and consists of Precambrian crystalline rocks overlain by Paleozoic shelf-facies rocks. The Avalon Zone represents part of Gondwana and largely consists of late Precambrian plutonic, volcanic and sedimentary rocks having North African affinities. The Gander Zone represents mainly sedimentary rocks believed to have been deposited near the eastern continental margin of the Iapetus Ocean. The Dunnage Zone represents the vestiges of the Iapetus Ocean. Rocks within this zone consist of volcanic and sedimentary rocks of oceanic, back-arc and island-arc affinity created during the opening and subsequent closure of Iapetus.

114 Buchans is located in west-central Newfoundland within the Notre Dame Subzone of the Dunnage Zone (Williams et al. 1988), which is bounded by the Baie Verte–Brompton Line to the west and the Red Indian Line to the east (Fig. 26). More recently, the southern part of this Subzone has been referred to as the Dashwoods Subzone (Lissenberg et al. 2005) because it has a Precambrian basement (the ‘Dashwoods Block’ of Waldron and van Staal 2001) that the northern part lacks. The Red Indian Line is a complex deformation zone that is several kilometres wide/thick and separates Ordovician and older rocks formed near Laurentia from coeval rocks formed near Gondwana (van Staal et al. 1998, 2007). Therefore, it represents the suture zone of the former Iapetus Ocean in central Newfoundland.

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115 The Notre Dame/Dashwoods Subzone is entirely allochthonous and comprises western and eastern parts. In the western part, the oldest rocks (507–484 Ma) are supra-subduction-zone ophiolites of the Baie Verte Oceanic Tract, which are overlain by calc-alkaline volcanic rocks that are intruded by 488–456 Ma arc plutons of the Notre Dame Arc (van Staal et al. 1998). In the eastern part, the Annieopsquotch Accretionary Tract (AAT) comprises a complex east-ver-gent thrust stack of ophiolites and arc-back-arc complexes that is bounded to the west by the Lloyds River–Hungry Mountain fault system and to the east by the Red Indian Line (Lissenberg et al. 2005; Zagorevski et al. 2006; Figs. 26, 27). The AAT encompasses the Annieopsquotch ophiolite belt (ca. 480 Ma), the Lloyds River ophiolite complex (ca. 473 Ma), and the Buchans (ca. 463 Ma) and Red Indian Lake (465–460 Ma) groups (Fig. 27); the latter two are predominantly bimodal ensialic calc-alkaline arc sequences (Zagorevski et al. 2006). The Buchans Group contains the host rocks to the orebodies and is described in more detail below.

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116 The Notre Dame Arc and its Baie Verte ophiolitic basement were accreted to Laurentia during phase 2 of the Taconic Orogeny, which ended during the Middle Ordovician (van Staal et al. 2007). More specifically, the AAT was generated above a single west-dipping subduction zone out-board of the Laurentian margin. Accretion took place in two main stages: the first corresponding with collision of the peri-Laurentian Dash-woods micro-continent at ca. 468 Ma and the second corresponding with collision of the peri-Gondwanan Victoria Arc at ca. 450 Ma (Zagorevski et al. 2006; Fig. 27).

Buchans Area Geology

Socio-economic Impact

137 The development of a mining industry at Buchans came at a time when Newfoundland was desperately in need of employment and revenue. The financial position of the Crown Colony, which began to deteriorate after World War I, had gradually worsened. By 1933, the Colony was virtually bankrupt as it could no longer meet the interest payments on its foreign debts or find buyers for its bonds. Finally, in 1934, in return for the financial backing of Great Britain, Newfoundland’s Representative Government, which it had enjoyed for more than a century, was replaced by Government by Commission. Throughout the 1930s, the population (290 000) suffered greatly from the effects of worldwide depression.

138 Buchans was an outstanding contributor to the social and economic welfare of the Island during these bleak depression years. The town was a haven of steady and full employment and the industry fed much-needed cash into the Island’s economy. Wages were very good relative to other jobs available at the time, and the average number of people on the payroll was rarely less than 650. Annually, the mining opera tion at Buchans paid some $600 000 directly to government at a time when total government revenue averaged about $10 million. The total amount of money expended by the company in Newfoundland, including payments to government and to others by way of salaries, supplies and services, up to the year 1939, was $21 million. The operation was a particular blessing for the New foundland Railway, which had been forced to cut services and maintenance in an effort to continue operating. During the depression years, concentrate tonnage from Buchans represented roughly half of the total freight hauled and the freight revenue from the mining operation was a considerable item in the railway’s monthly income.

139 The labour strife of the early 1970s was an unfortunate series of events that were brought about by the burden of history, changing social norms and rapidly diminishing ore reserves at a time of great economic uncertainty. The events surrounding the strikes are burned into the memories of all who experienced them and these events have undoubtedly influenced the leaders of Canadian industry, labour and government organizations.

140 The presence of the Buchans Mine led to the development of infrastructure that would otherwise not exist in the central part of Newfoundland. For example, there would have been no reason to build the power line from Corner Brook to that part of the island. The paved highway from Badger on the Trans-Canada Highway to Red Indian Lake likely would not have been built, nor subsequently extended to Burgeo on the south coast (Fig. 1).

141 Despite a fledgling mining industry, the economy of early twentieth century Newfoundland was largely based upon the twin pillars of fishing and forestry. The mining development at Buchans marked the ascent of the mining industry, which, to this day, continues as a major contributor to the economy of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Geoscientific Significance

142 The Buchans VMS orebodies are geologically unusual in a number ways and absolutely unique in others. Their very rich grade, averaging 22% combined lead and zinc, was what made it possible for the mine to be developed in such a remote location and to remain in continuous production under what were often difficult circumstances. Buchans is unusually high grade, compared to most other VMS deposits worldwide, and the percentage of gangue minerals is relatively low. Iron sulphides (pyrite and/or pyrrhotite) are commonly the most abundant sulphide minerals in VMS ores; however, Buchans is unusual in that the average pyrite content is less than 10%.

143 The Buchans orebodies are jewels among Canada’s mineral deposits for their relatively pristine state of preservation. As such, they were important in the development of modern concepts of the genesis of VMS deposits. The concept of ‘transported orebodies’, wherein ore is carried downslope as gravity-driven debris flows from its source, was first recognized and described at Buchans. Indeed, more than half the ore mined at Buchans was of the ‘transported’ variety. Sulphide breccias are now widely recognized within and adjacent to VMS deposits; however, the scale of mechanically transported breccia ore and the distances of transport at Buchans remain unrivalled on a worldwide basis. During the 1960s and early 1970s, many sceptical touring geologists, after viewing sedimentary breccias studded with high-grade sulphide clasts, left Buchans converted to the new paradigm of seafloor deposition of VMS ores. In a more general sense, Buchans is unusual for the great variety, proportion and preservation of breccia rocks and is a laboratory for anyone wishing to become familiar with a spectrum of breccia textures and processes.

144 Another unique feature of the Buchans ores is the widespread occurrence of granitoid clasts within the breccia ores. The granitoid clasts are typically more rounded and larger in size than other rock and sulphide clasts with which they are associated. In some sedimentary breccias, termed ‘granite conglomerate’, they are the dominant clast type. Granitoid clasts are little more than a curiosity at a small number of VMS deposits worldwide, and nowhere do they approach the volumetric importance that they do at Buchans, where hundreds of thousands or even millions of tonnes of granitoid clasts form an integral part of the transported ores. Their origin, although controversial, speaks to unusual or even globally unique geological circumstances during ore formation at Buchans.

145 A perhaps unique aspect of Buchans geology is the widespread occurrence of high-grade sulphide clasts within thrust faults. These clasts are distributed continuously within sheets of cohesive cataclasite over a 2 x 4 km area in proximity to the Lucky Strike Orebody, and appear to be the remnants of an orebody that was dismembered and scattered by thrusting.

Technological Significance

146 Neary (1981) described, in some detail, how Hans Lundberg used electrical methods to discover both the Lucky Strike and Oriental orebodies in the summer of 1926. However, the geophysical significance of this pioneering work deserves additional emphasis. Although geophysical methods had met with some early success in both Europe and North America, electrical methods were still in their embryonic stage and it is clear that there were no prior geophysical discoveries on this continent that even remotely approach the significance of Lundberg’s finds at Buchans. The discovery of the Lucky Strike Orebody under an isolated central Newfoundland bog can rightly be called the first geophysical discovery of significant metallic ores in North America, and Lundberg has been described as the ‘Father of Canadian Geophysics’ (Cathro et al. 1993). Despite the name ascribed to the find, it is clear that technology, initiative and hard work were greater factors in its discovery than luck.

147 Decades later, in the 1940s, Lundberg experimented with measuring the metal contents of both lake-bottom sediments and vegetation as a means of detecting buried mineral deposits at Buchans. This work appears to be the first attempt to employ the new science of exploration geochemistry in Canada (Brummer et al. 1987).

148 Many improvements in the science and art of milling complex base metal sulphides were pioneered at Buchans by ASARCO, and the Buchans concentrator was noted for its complicated and sometimes innovative processes. In 1935, intensive laboratory research commenced at Buchans in an attempt to find and develop a profitable method for the recovery of copper. A satisfactory process that used sulphur dioxide gas was discovered and the production of a separate copper concentrate began in September 1936. This was a major metallurgical development that considerably enhanced the value of the Buchans ore, for which much credit is due to the ASARCO metallurgists and in particular to the milling staff working at Buchans.