Progress Marker 1960

latitude 50 degrees north longitude 66 degrees west 200 miles north of the st. Lawrence River port of seven islands this is a land of abundant water rolling hills and iron ore Wabash Lake Labrador on the south shore of the lake the gleaming metal covering of the Wabash iron company's preliminary ore processing plant stands out above everything else because of iron ore Wabash iron has a neighbor in this vast wilderness across the lake is the Kerr lake property of iron ore company of Canada Wabash iron has been at the property since 1957 following a carefully planned program for bringing it into large-scale production in an orderly way by 1965 temporary housing was the first necessity nothing fancy but adequate and comfortable including living quarters plus kitchen dining hall laundry and recreation facilities for over a hundred men in 1961 Wabash iron will start a five million dollar building program here to provide housing for the 1200 men needed when construction of the future mining and processing installations gets underway air transportation is essential for men and supplies in a remote area this 6,000 foot airstrip was built big enough for large for engine aircraft and there is now regularly scheduled commercial airline service this is part of the wabash or body clearing the land is the first step in opening one of several small mining pits to get or for testing in the plant which has been in continuous operation since early 1960 the bulldozer is followed by an earth movement that loads itself and removing a shallow layer of Earth covering the ore tall drill rings put down a carefully set pattern of holes to sample the chemical content and structure of the orc a great amount of exploration drilling must be done before an ore body can be mine [Music] well over 30,000 feet of drilling has already been done that the program is continuing after blasting the or varies in size from big chunks to very fine particles it is soft enough to break with a fairly light blow the wall Bashar is low-grade in its natural state and requires extensive processing to be usable the clue dollar needed to test various processing methods in the plant is taken from the test pits and a stockpile a diesel powered shovel is used to load the heavy duty trucks hauling ore from the pits [Music] smaller trucks are used at the stockpile because of the shorter haul and better road [Music] at the plant or is dumped into a storage bin that feeds into a crusher after crushing it is conveyed to the next structure for screening then it goes into the large mill building here it is ground down in a rotating drum to a size fine enough for they are to be separated from the waste in the last stages of the concentrating process Wabash iron has spent about three million dollars to construct the plant and other facilities at the property in June of 1960 premier chose a small wood of Newfoundland and mr. Gordon pushy director-general of economic development for the province visited Wabash Lake to see the plant in operation and other progress in developing the property from the first the Government of Newfoundland has been most cooperative on the many matters that must be resolved in starting and carrying on a major mining project the concentrated or leaves the plant in a small but steady stream for haulage to stockpile trucks back up on the stockpile for dumping [Music] because of the type of or the individual particles sparkle in the Sun after only five months of plant operation the stockpile looked like this late in July 1960 it contained about thirty thousand gross tons of concentrates by the end of the year production had reached fifty thousand gross tons total expenditures on the overall project by the companies that owned Wabash iron steel Company of Canada Youngstown Sheet & Tube inland steel Pittsburgh steel Interlake iron and pecans matter exceeded twenty six million dollars through 1960 in August 1960 railroad tracks were allayed alongside the stock pile so that the first of three large shipments of concentrates about 42,000 gross tons in total could be sent to steel plants of some of the Wabash iron owners for centering and blast furnace tests the shovel moves progressively along the pile filling the cars bucket full after bucketful these shipments and the steel plant tests proved the handling and the movement by rail and vessel of the concentrated or in bulk and more importantly it's used in the sitting process and as a blast furnace speed to be entirely satisfactory it is a long-standing tradition in the iron ore industry to carry a spruce tree at the head of the first carve or ship from a new property [Music] the cars are loaded and waiting as one of the engines arrives and the high ball signal is given there are many sweeping curves along the 37 mile railway Wabash iron and iron ore company of Canada built jointly to connect their properties with the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway the scenery all the way to the railways southern terminal at seven islands is beautiful sometimes spectacular and seemingly everywhere there is bountiful water part of the lavenders abundant water will play a vital role in Wabash Cheyenne's future operations hydroelectric power to be generated at Twin Falls on the Hamilton River 100 miles north of Wabash Lake will be needed to run mining and processing equipment at an ordered a cat seven islands the cars are pushed into the car dumper for unloading [Music] the or is carried to the dock on parallel conveyors and then fed into the vessels holds from loading towers [Music] after navigating the st. Lawrence Seaway and three of the Great Lakes the vessel nears Indiana Harbor at the lower end of Lake Michigan they're at a steel plant a huge bucket unloads the first shipment and dumps it on the dock [Music] at point the wire Quebec across seven islands Bay from where this cargo was loaded Wabash iron has started construction of an ore loading dock and a 25 mile railway to connect the harbour site with the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway this unrelated work there will cost over 15 million dollars and with the five million dollars in housing to be built at the property Wabash iron has in 1961 committed an additional 20 million dollars to further progress in developing the Wabash Lake project [Music]