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Reed Lake Site History In 1910, some prospectors discovered gold on the west side of Amisk Lake, the first major discovery of gold west of the Ontario border. These included Jack and Dan Mosher, Thomas Creighton, and Leon and Isidor Dion. The Mosher-Creighton party's gold strike at Amisk Lake in 1913 was the first significant mineral discovery in the region, and it caused the increased, exploration activity that ultimately led to the discovery of the Flin Flon deposits. Kathleen Rice, a well-educated woman from Ontario who eventually settled on Wekusko Lake near Snow Lake, was one of the early pioneers of this region. The discoverers named the deposit "Flin Flon" from the first syllables of the last two syllables of Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin, the leading character in a novel entitled "The Sunless City". A copy of the book (which tells the story of FlintabÂbatey Flonatin reaching an imaginary underground gold mine and city) had come into the hands of the prospecting party shortly before the Flin FIon discovery. The deposit is near the Saskatchewan border, with part of it extending into that Province. The Flin Flon orebody was discovered by David Collins, a local trapper, and shown to Tom Creighton, a prospector, in 1914. The first claims were registered the following year, but despite heroic efforts by the legendary mining promoter, Jack Hamell, it took more than a dozen years to bring the mine into production. There were a variety of reasons for the delay. It was a huge orebody, but of relatively low grade, so it would require a smelter to make it economically viable. It was very isolated and required a railway link with the CNR line at The Pas, 140 km (87 ml) away. To supply electric power required construction of a dam and generating station at Island Falls on the Churchill River. The price tag for all these, including the smelter, was about 90 million dollars. It was no small gamble, especially during a worldwide recession. In 1927, the Whitney family of New York created HBM&S, which took over controlling interest in the Flin Flon property. By 1930, the mine, smelter, hydroelectric dam and railroad were in full operation. Up until 1936 the ore was mined by the open pit method and then by two shafts. North Main went down 670 m (2200 ft.) and South Main 1280 m (4200 ft.). The last ore from the main deposit came out in 1992 after some 62 million tons had been excavated. That same year the Mandy deposit was discovered 5.5 kilometres southeast of Flin Flon. This was a much smaller deposit but it had an exceptionally high grade of 18% copper, with 3 grams of gold and 71 grams of silver per tonne. Systematic drilling was carried out on the Flin Flon deposit and by the end of 1918, was calculated to contain 15 million tonnes averaging 1.68copper and 3.49% zinc. At that time the nearest railway was at The Pas, 130 kllometres to the south and the market price for copper was low, so the Flin Flon deposit remained undeveloped for a few years. The Mandy deposit on the other hand was so rich that the ore did not require concentration and could be shipped directly to a smelter at a profit even though the transportation was lengthy and an unusual affair. The ore was hauled by sleigh 65 kilometres to Sturgeon Landing in winter, and then in summer was barged, 200 kilometres through Namew Lake, Sturgeon-Weir River, CumberIand Lake, Saskatchewan River to The Pas and finally from there, taken by train, to the smelter at Trail, British Columbia. The operation lasted from 1916 to 1919 during which time 22 885 tonnes of ore averaging 20% copper were mined. The Flin Flon deposit was developed in the late 1920's by the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. Limited after the railway to the site had been completed. The cost of erecting the hydro-electric power plant 80 kilometres away on the Churchill River, the transmission line, mine and metallurgical plants amounted to over $25 million in 1930. This was estimated at that time to be one of the most expensive initial mining plants ever established In the history of mining. Production from the Flin Flon mine started at the end of 1930 and ceased in 1992. The Flin Flon orebody is the largest known copper-zinc massive sulphide deposit in Manitoba and one of the largest in Canada. In 1931 the importance of copper and zinc to the development of northern Manitoba was confirmed when Sherritt Gordon Mines Limited brought the Sherridon mine, 70 kilometres northeast of Flin Flon, into production. Except for a temporary closure between 1932 and 1935 due to a low copper price of 5.5 cents per pound, the Sherridon mine operated continuously until 1951 when its orebodies were exhausted. Between 1948 and 1955 Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. Limited opened up several small mines in the Flin Flon area, such as Cuprus, Schist Lake, North Star, and Don Jon. In 1960 this company brought Chisel Lake, the first copper-zinc mine in the Snow Lake area, into production, and between 1964 and 1970 developed, in the same area, the Stall Lake, Osborne Lake, Anderson Lake and Dickstone mines. In 1970, Sherritt Gordon Mines Limited brought the Fox mine, the first copper-zinc mine in the Lynn Lake area, into production. This was followed, in 1973, by the Ruttan mine. Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. Limited has continued to bring new mines into production in the Flin Flon area, including the White Lake mine in 1972, the Centennial mine in 1977, the Westarm mine in 1978, the Trout Lake mine in 1982, and in the Snow Lake area, the Spruce Point mine in 1982 and the Rod No.2 mine in 1984. In recent years, Photo Lake, Chisel North, Konuto and the Triple Seven mines have or will be brought into production. Today the smelter and the rest of the plant depend upon ore hauled from a variety of mines around Flin Flon, Snow Lake and Leaf Rapids. The North Main shaft is closed, but South Main is used to hoist ore to the surface from the Callinan deposit, some three kilometres away by tunnel. There is an experimental greenhouse at the 360 m (1170 ft.) level that has received international publicity for its success in growing a variety of plants, including the Pacific yew tree, used to make the cancer-fighting drug, Taxol. The community of Flin Flon was founded and continues to be dependent on the mineral resources located in the area. |
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