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confidence 34 Don’t play hunches. We can help you find your best opportunities for profitable mining. Tap our global experience. Over 900 professionals in 36 offices on 6 continents. Expert independent advice. SRK Consulting Engineers and Scientists www.srk.com Our global experience is your global experience SUMMER 2010 in British Columbia – gold, copper, lead, molybdenum, zinc and more – is used for tools, ornaments and weapons. And pots, pans, stoves, TVs, computers, telephones, calculators, photocopiers, bicycles, golf clubs, cars, buses, planes, trains, stethoscopes, CAT scans, X-ray machines, doorknobs, paperclips, glass frames, snaps, zippers, filing cabinets, mirrors, dryers, microwave ovens, dishwashers, toilets, sinks, plumbing pipes, electrical wires, emery boards, bobby pins, hoes, hammers, locks, keys, railings, parking meters, coins, soft drink cans, lightbulbs, flagpoles, VCRs, Nintendos, PlayStations, Xboxes, screwdrivers, aluminum foil, refrigerators, radios, stereos, MP3 players and DVD players. And knives and forks and spoons. And fireworks. And stained glass windows. And wedding rings. There is no doubt: we need metals and minerals. As the old saying goes: If you can’t grow it, you have to mine it! The desire to own things made of metal is persistent and universal. Leaping ahead in time we learn that in 1774, a group of Haida people near Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) came into contact with the Spanish explorer Juan Perez, in command of the Santiago. Among the items the natives received in trade for their furs and carved boxes were iron knives. But they had iron already! A friar travelling with Perez wrote: “We were interested also to see that the women wear rings on their fingers and bracelets of iron and copper ….” When Captain Cook visited Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island in 1778, he was astonished to find the local people had iron knives and spears tipped with copper. (They also had two silver teaspoons, but they got those from earlier Spanish explorers.) In a 1938 paper, Thomas A. Rickard, who wrote extensively on the history of mining, quotes John Meares (at Nootka in 1788): “The pure malleable lumps of copper ore seen in the possession of the natives convince us that there are mines of this metal in the vicinity of this part of the western coast …. We had also occasionally seen necklaces and a sort of bracelet worn on the wrist, which were of the purest [copper] ore, and to all appearances had never been in the possession of a European.” Rickard himself writes, “The Tsimshian Indians, on the Skeena River, in northern British Columbia, have a tradition of fire that fell from heaven and was transformed into copper. This suggests the finding of copper in nugget form, like a drop of molten metal from the sky.” This “native copper,” one of the few metallic elements to occur in uncombined form as a natural mineral, would be fashioned, among other things, into copper shields, which B.C.’s early First Nations esteemed highly. As for the iron, Rickard writes: “We have good reason to infer that the indigenes on this northwestern coast made their first acquaintance with iron, as the South Sea Islanders did, by means of driftwood, brought by the oceanic winds and currents, both moving persistently eastward from the Asiatic shore to the American mainland.” And he provides many instances of metal-studded flotsam from wrecked vessels that washed ashore. Gold and coal As Europeans began to arrive in British Columbia in greater and greater numbers, their discovery of minerals and metals intensified. The famous botanist David Douglas, after whom the Douglas fir is named, is said to have made the first discovery of gold in British Columbia. It was in the summer of 1833 on the west shore of Okanagan Lake, and he apparently found enough gold
to make a seal. In what way he gathered the gold and how large a seal he made – perhaps a signet ring? – isn’t recorded. A couple of years later, a momentous discovery was made on Vancouver Island: coal. The local native people around Port Hardy, on the Island’s northeast coast, already knew about it. They told Dr. William Tolmie, who in 1835 was a young surgeon working for the Hudson’s Bay Company. (One story tells of a group of men who were amused to see a local blacksmith using coal imported all the way from Wales, when they knew there were mountains of the stuff nearby.) Tolmie told his employers about the coal, and HBC had its newly arrived steamer, the Beaver, go to the site and check out the report. It took some years after the Beaver’s visit, but what they found persuaded the company to begin mining the coal. That was the small beginning of what has been described as “the oldest established and most important industry of Vancouver Island.” HBC carried on intermittent mining for several years, and then abandoned the project. Newly arrived Scot Robert Dunsmuir revived mining in Nanaimo in 1851, and it has continued ever since. The Dunsmuir family – whose own background was in coal mining in Scotland – would come to dominate the industry for many years. A little-known gold rush occurred in the Queen Charlotte Islands in March of 1851, sparked when a Haida man brought a 27-ounce nugget to Fort Victoria. He got 1,500 HBC blankets for the nugget. Perhaps he and his blankets were aboard the Una, an HBC vessel that hurried up to Moresby Island to examine the find. It is said the crew of the Una found a vein there, six-and-a-half feet wide and 80 feet long. Before long, they began blasting. The Una’s log states that, as soon as a blast had occurred, the Haida men would rush in to gather the gold, grabbing the crewmen by the legs to prevent them from getting it. After three blasts the rest of the gold was abandoned “to avoid bloodshed,” and the log notes the warring parties – the Haida men and the Una’s crew – each took about $1,500 in gold – roughly equivalent to $60,000 today. On her return voyage the Una was wrecked off Neah Bay and her gold was lost. The HBC decided not to mine in the Queen Charlottes again. In 1855 gold was discovered on the Pend d’Oreille River, a tributary of the Columbia, near present-day Trail. Then, in 1857, it was discovered on the Setting Possibilities in Motion Canadian metals at the 2010 Winter Games. No matter which national anthem played as the athletes stepped onto the podium, Teck employees were truly proud. That’s because we provided the metals for each gold, silver and bronze medal for the 2010 Winter Games. www.teck.com Porch poise: Barkerville Old Timers of 1900, as portrayed in a circa-1930s postcard. Photograph: AME BC Archives SUMMER 2010 35
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