The Mining Industry in Yukon and parts of northern British Columbia in 1930

1931 ◽  
Author(s):  
W E Cockfield
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Mining Industry

scholarly journals Considerations in the Search and Exploration for Minerals in British Columbia

1973 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 538
Author(s):  
John R. Mackay
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Commercial Production ◽  
Common Method ◽  
Development Activity ◽  
Public Offering ◽  
Exploration And Development

In the following article, Mr. Mackay discusses the acquisition and develop ment of mineral property under the provisions of the Mineral Act of British Columbia. The writer reviews three main types of agreements (and the more important terms of the various agreements) used for the acquisition of an "interest" in mineral claim. Financing is requisite of any exploration and development activity, and the author examines various sources of funds available for financing in the mining industry, concentrating on the most common method, incorporating company to take over the development of the mining property, with particular emphasis on the various procedural steps which must be followed before public offering can be made. Finally, Mr. Mackay briefly examines the problem of placing mineral property into commercial production.

GEOPHYSICAL CASE HISTORIES OF DISSEMINATED SULFIDE DEPOSITS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

Geophysics ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Fountain
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Geophysical Methods ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Sulfide Deposits ◽  
Economic Significance ◽  
Total Sulfide ◽  
Sulfide Content

The growth of the mining industry in British Columbia in recent years has been mainly due to the development of large low‐grade disseminated sulfide deposits. The two problems faced by the geophysicist in the exploration for deposits of this nature are the difficulty of, one, detecting large volumes of rock containing a low‐percentage content of total sulfide mineralization and, two, obtaining some idea of the economic significance of the mineralization. Although the standard geophysical methods used in the search for disseminated sulfide deposits have been successfully applied, there are some aspects of the British Columbia deposits which create additional problems for the geophysicist. As illustrated by the Brenda, Valley Copper, and Lornex deposits, the lack of appreciable pyrite associated with the economic mineralization results in a low total sulfide content; this in turn makes it difficult to obtain a diagnostic anomalous geophysical response. Because of the rugged terrain and generally heavy forest growth, the more powerful geophysical methods, such as induced polarization, are high‐cost techniques. However, alteration and fracturing associated with the disseminated mineralization (Babine Lake area) may lower the overall resistivity of a deposit sufficiently to allow detection with electromagnetic (EM) methods. Although limited in application, the lower cost of EM methods in many situations renders their use practical, especially if airborne techniques can be employed.

scholarly journals Creating a New Staple: Capital, Technology, and Monopoly in British Columbia’s Resource Sector, 1901-1925

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-237
Author(s):  
Jeremy Mouat
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Mining Company ◽  
Lead Zinc ◽  
Resource Sector

Abstract This paper examines the mining industry of British Columbia, the province's leading staple during the period when the region was brought within the network of world trade. Specifically, it describes the emergence of zinc production as the most profitable sector of the industry, from the early 1900s through to the mid-1920s. A good deal of importance was attached to discovering some means of treating zinc ore in the early 1900s. Increasing amounts of zinc were being found in the silver-lead ore of eastern British Columbia. Zinc was seen as a contaminant, and smelters penalised mine-owners who shipped ore that was over 10 per cent zinc. The presence of zinc rendered relatively valuable ore (in terms of its silver and lead content) uneconomical. Concern over “the zinc problem” was such that, by 1905, the federal government, responding to the lobbying efforts of mine-owners, appointed a commission “to Investigate the Zinc Resources of British Columbia and the Conditions Affecting Their Exploitation”. During the next twenty years, mining companies in the Kootenays explored a number of different ways to overcome zinc's unfortunate impact upon the mining industry. These efforts to discover an adequate means to treat zinc ore illustrate the way in which technology and capital became the key ingredients of a distinctively new mining industry. The paper argues that the emergence of zinc mining reflected a fundamental restructuring of the industry, as the focus shifted from the discovery and exploitation of bonanza deposits of gold and silver to the less spectacular production of copper, lead, and zinc. Technology, economies of scale, and substantial capital investment were the hallmarks of the new industry. Not only was the industry profoundly altered — experiencing what other scholars have described as the second industrial revolution — but new vertically integrated companies displaced the traditional mining company. The paper describes the clearest example of this trend, outlining the early career of the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada [Cominco], a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Cominco was able to put in place the necessary technology to tap its enormous lead-zinc deposit at Kimberley, and successfully treat zinc at its Trail refinery. Within two decades, and largely as a result of its ability to treat zinc, Cominco became the most profitable mining company ever to operate in British Columbia. The conclusion suggests some consequences of Cominco's ascendancy.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document