Producers meet nickel’s high demand

The strong demand for nickel continues and Canada’s two producers, Inco and Falconbridge, are registering record levels of peacetime production.

Production levels from Inco in the last half of 1950 should surpass record levels set earlier this year. The company’s sales will be helped by the purchase of 2 million lbs. of nickel matte from Falconbridge.

The extra flow of matte has taxed the Sudbury refinery to capacity, but Inco has already ordered an additional 4 million lbs. of matte, with delivery to begin in December.

In addition to requirements for war materials, an abnormal peacetime demand has developed through a steady broadening of nickel uses.

New Yukon highway helps mines

The last link of the new 247-mile highway connecting Whitehorse, with Mayo, Y.T., has been completed. The all-weather road, built to aid development of one of the largest lode mining areas in the Yukon, provides direct access from the Keno mining districts to Whitehorse and also joins the Alaska Highway, about 12 miles north of the city.

Even before the work was completed, the road was being used as the main supply route to get to and from the Keno district. An unusually low rainfall rendered the Stewart River, the traditional means of transportation, virtually unnavigable.

BC enjoys base metal boom

The long-predicted base metal boom in British Columbia is well under way. A recent survey shows that no fewer than six new concentrators are being built; three more will be built in the near future; while two others are increasing their capacity.

High metal prices have brought about a repetition of the late 1920s, when every known base metals prospect in the province was being scouted and examined by mining and exploration companies in B.C. and from eastern Canada.

The two big copper mines — Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting & Power Co., at Copper Mountain, and Britannia Mining & Smelting, at Britannia Beach — are benefiting from today’s exceptional copper prices.

Duo invests $30m in titanium mining

Kennecott Copper and New Jersey Zinc Co. have joined forces through a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary, Quebec Iron & Titanium, to build a $30-million facility designed to extract and refine titanium dioxide — one of the most sought-after substances in the world.

Kennecott and New Jersey Zinc own the world’s largest deposit of ilmenite, a raw titanium mineral, situated on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, near the Allard Lake district. The deposit is said to contain 125 million tons of ore, with grades as high as 36% titanium dioxide and 42% iron.

After years researching the project, the two companies spent millions on: a railway that runs from the deposit to the smelter; ore loading and unloading docks; crushing plants; orebody preparations for open-pit mining; and a treatment and smelting plant near Havre-Saint- Pierre.