ODDS’N’SODS — The benefits of mining

Mine-finding is perhaps the most difficult and financially hazardous task undertaken in the industrial world. Success requires supreme dedication or phenomenal luck, or some part of both. Few people understand this.

One person who did was Thayer Lindsley. Not for him the “3-martini lunch;” legend had it that it was two pieces of dry whole wheat bread and an apple, enjoyed at his desk while reading geological reports.

Bill Martin, a Haileybury consulting geologist, told me that once he received a phone call from “T.L.,” asking him to come to Toronto and make a special study of the geology, exploration history and property holdings of the Porcupine belt, east of Timmins. It was explained that a downtown office would be made available and that he could stay at Lindsley’s house in Toronto so that they could discuss his findings as the study developed. After about a month of all-day office work and evenings spent pouring over geological maps, Bill decided he had to have a break; and he remarked at dinner that there was a movie showing that evening which he’d like to see. “T.L. looked at me,” Bill said, “as if I’d just announced I had leprosy, and after a pause he said, `All right, Bill, you go to the movie.’ The next morning, he called me into his office and said, `Bill, I think you’d best wind up your report and go back to Haileybury.’ He just couldn’t tolerate anyone in his home who would rather see a movie than study geological maps.” Another dedicated mine finder was Karl Springer. I was told that if a young geologist approached him for a job, he first heard this admonition: “I’m not interested in your wife, or your children, or the fact that you may be looking after your dear old mother. If you work for me you work single status. Is that understood?” If your answer was “Yes, but . . .,” the interview was over, and you’d better knock on other doors.

In August, 1963, there was news of an important zinc discovery near the west coast of Newfoundland, made by a Springer company. I was in Corner Brook at the time, and beat it up the coast to see what I could. Springer’s exploration manager, Charlie Pegg, was on the property, and kindly showed me around.

Knowing the company policy, I asked Charlie when he’d last been home. He said, “I’ve been home once since Christmas. That was in May, when I received a telegram from my wife saying that our 9-year-old daughter was in the hospital and the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Could I please come home and give her some support over this crisis? So I went home. Two days later Springer called me to ask what I was doing in Toronto. I explained, and he said `Your job is in Newfoundland, and if you want to keep it you’d better get back on it.'”

That is the kind of dedication successful mine finding required back in the 1950s and ’60s, and it is much rarer now. Duncan Derry used to compile figures on the average cost of finding a mine in Canada. I do not remember them exactly, but they were something like $5 million per mine in the early 1950s, and $45 million in the late 1970s, and they are much higher now. Not many mines return $45 million in after-tax profits above capital expenditures, but mines provide benefits to the economy many times over their capital expenditures.

Civilization cannot exist without a continuing supply of iron, aluminum, copper, zinc and other metals.

In the business of mine finding, the high-priority targets have long since been taken up. The odds against success get higher and higher, year by year. By placing heavier and heavier constraints on the development and operation of mines, our governments are eliminating jobs and contributing to a reduced standard of living for us all, decade by decade.

Do they want to do that to us?

— Philip Eckman is a resident of Paradise Valley, Ariz.