Mining Creating Many Jobs In Thunder Bay
by Scott A. Sumner
“ Thunder Bay will only grow more as a regional and mining and exploration service centre. That is what I call Thunder Bay. We probably will never be a mining town like Sudbury or Timmins with the shadows of the head frames in the city and their 130-year history of production. Thunder Bay does provide a regional flavour to engage in the sector whether it be exploration or mining.” said John Mason who is Project Manager, Mining Services with the Thunder Bay CEDC. He was with
the Ministry of Northern Development And Mines, Province of Ontario previously for 36 years managing their resident geology program in NW Ontario and holds an Honours Bachelor of Science from Lakehead University. “ LU Geology is doing well at this time with the graduates getting multiple job offers. Their graduates are ideal for the exploration industry because they can map the rocks etc well and they are well armed when they leave school.”
The Thunder Bay area has had mines on the production side with Silver Islet and west of Thunder Bay in Shebandowan with a very early mine there. The number of jobs in the mining industry in Thunder Bay continues to grow however.
“ I feel we have over 2000 employees working here in the mining sector. We have 25 mining exploration offices here that employ 136 people. With Musselwhite and Lac de Seul we have another over 300 workers here. The analytical labs as one example have 5 labs in Thunder Bay and another one coming and employ well over 300 people. There are diamond-drilling companies and consultants like engineering with over 300 people working here that just do mine engineering work. They do work all around Canada and the world, companies like Nordmin. It is a real success story.” said John Mason.
Currently mines operational near Thunder Bay are the NAP, Lac Des Iles site and Musslewhite with Goldcorp located due north at 54 degrees, a 1 hour flight near the Ring of Fire project that uses Wasaya Air to fly staff to their site.
“ There are about 12 new mining projects, 8 of which are advanced and will start production between 2013 and 2017 Noront and Cliffs as well as other gold, copper and iron sites are on the cusp of production. Rubicon out of Red lake will start late 2013. There are also Osisko Mining near Atikokan, Rainy River Resources near Fort Frances and Stillwater Mining at Marathon, a copper palladium platinum operation to start in 2015 and 2016 and are going through environmental assessment.” said Mason.
“ We will develop service sector jobs here to serve these mines at a 5 to 1 ratio for the mine jobs, ranging from supply companies to major engineering firms and companies that construct head frames. There are many jobs to come. We don’t have enough skilled people to handle all the jobs that will come and we have to address that,” said Mason. “ The miner jobs are well paying with miners on bonus in the $150,000 range. The employment will grow in Thunder Bay because we are a regional service centre and the only city of size to provide services like a university, college, modern hospital, theatre, sports and entertainment in a beautiful setting like Thunder Bay which offers affordable housing and commercial properties, a huge draw. The Thunder Bay airport has seen growth based on mining and feel mining is the largest single user of the airport property for scheduled and chartered flights.”
“ We are only on the cusp of growth which is predicated somewhat on metal prices. We need to get permitting happen quickly to get the properties in production. The area is also very fortunate to have a diversified mineral endowment from chromate, iron and copper to gold and palladium as well as stone product. It is quite a varied basket of minerals, which provides diversification. Gold is still perceived as seen as the ultimate currency in many eyes,” said John Mason. “ We try to link service and supply companies to mining companies and try to attract more junior companies to Thunder Bay.”
