The following article is reprinted from Builders of Fortunes; written and illustrated by George Lohn; published in Toronto, 1963...
In the rockbound wilderness of the Ungava Peninsula, 1,200 miles north of Montreal, and in the equally inhospitable barrenlands of Baffin Island, above the Arctic Circle, crews of engineers, geologists and other technicians have under way a long range program of exploration and development which, when completed, will give Canada sources of mineral wealth that were only one mining man’s dream three decades ago.
From 3,000 square miles of Ungava, in terrain which geologists have described as “an undulating ribbon” of mineral formations, mining men are endeavoring to bring into production undoubted rich stores of copper, nickel and asbestos. A few hundred miles to the north, there are confident expectations that austere Baffin Island will yield from its reluctant grasp a natural treasury of iron for the mills and foundries of the Western world.
The man principally responsible for this activity in the “new” North – the barren lands of northeastern Canada – is Murray Edmund Watts, who first saw the possibilities of this little explored region in the early 1930’s during a hardship-packed stay in Ungava while earning money to put himself through college.
Thanks to his faith in his own convictions and his perseverance in uncovering the natural wealth locked in Canada’s barrens, Murray Watts has made his fellow countrymen, and people abroad as well, aware as they never were before of the mining potential above the tree line.
This Canadian “new frontiersman” was born in 1909, in an atmosphere of mining. His birthplace was Cobalt, in Northern Ontario, centre at that time of a world-famous silver rush. In his early childhood, his family moved to South Porcupine, then to Schumacher, both in mining country. When Schumacher was swept by fire, the Watts family returned to Cobalt and Murray Watts attended the Haileybury School of Mines, a few miles from home.
Before he was graduated from Haileybury in 1928, Murray had his first experience in prospecting in the Temagami area with ”Hardrock” Bill Smith. He also prospected in the Rouyn district of Quebec, tramping in to the scene 32 miles from the end of the railway at Cheminis. When he was 17, he went on a prospecting trip to Red Lake, in northwestern Ontario, with Phil St. Louis, who later gained mining fame for his Athabasca uranium find.
In 1928, when he was just 18, Murray was in charge of a four man prospecting party for the Cyril Knight Prospecting Co. in the Harricanan-Mattagami River area of northwestern Quebec.
In 1929, Murray Watts enrolled in the school of mines at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. However, his studies were interrupted by the need to earn money to maintain himself at college and he did not graduate until 1935. During these years of work he explored the mineral possibilities of northern Ungava.
This began with a prospecting trip, on which he canoed from Oskalaneo to Chibougamau, a distance of 150 miles, in 10 days, with 20 portages along the way.
In 1931, Watts and another prospector, Mike McCart, set out from Moose Factory on the southern tip of James Bay, for Cape Smith, on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. They made the 1,200 mile trip in a 22 foot open canoe powered by an outboard motor. The journey took 30 days, one of the longest voyages ever made in a canoe in open Northern seas.
Making their winter headquarters at Cape Smith, Watts and McCart traveled across country by dog sled, made friends with Eskimos, endured the bitter cold and angry Ungava storms, netted fish through the ice for their meals. In the short summers, they trudged over the rugged country, carrying their supplies on their backs and on Pack dogs. They lived partly off the land, catching fish and shooting an occasional caribou.
The two prospectors were looking for gold, but in this they were disappointed. All they found in the bleak countryside was evidence of extensive sulphide deposits.
“Ungava was too remote in the 1930’s,” Watts said in years later. “In those days you couldn’t give base metals away. Gold was the thing.”
After university, Watts plunged whole-heartedly into mining. He prospected in Ontario and Quebec, he looked after engineering and amalgamation of properties in the Cobalt camp, and he was mine superintendent of Canadian Malartic Gold Mines, which became well-known for its low cost production.
By 1946, he was vice-president of Chamberlain Mining Corporation, which had contracts for management or consulting service with a number of companies in Quebec, Manitoba and the Yukon Territory. Then he became chief engineer and eastern manager for P. Harrison Contracting Co., with responsibilities in Ontario, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
His next position took Murray Watts to the Ungava country for the second time. In 1948, he joined Little Long Lac, first as consultant and later as general manager. His work involved associated companies, one of which was LeMoyne Explorations Ltd. On behalf of LeMoyne, Watts in 1953 made a second trip to Ungava and began a long series of explorations, which culminated in 1956 in the formation of LeMoyne Ungava Mines to take over two copper-nickel concessions.
After Watts’ explorations had clearly indicated the potential value of the Ungava district, the Government of Quebec gave 32 companies permits to explore 3,022 square miles of land, extending for 228 miles from Cape Smith to Wakeham Bay.
LeMoyne Ungava’s claims were optioned to American Smelting and Refining which, after spending about a million dollars, suspended operations. In the meantime, Watts organized the Murray Mining Corporation for the exploration of his concessions. Murray Mining bought all the abandoned facilities - camps, provisions, fuel dumps, and equipment – for only a few cents on the dollar.
Watts always kept his eyes open for any useful mineral. While on and aerial reconnaissance in Ungava, he had seen significant serpentine outcroppings carrying asbestos fibre, near a lake that bore his name. Hopeful that this might lead to a profitable asbestos mine, Watts applied for further concessions.
Murray Mining, of which Watts is now a director and consulting engineer, is moving gradually toward eventual production from its chrysotile asbestos deposits, even though that time may still be a few years away. At the same time, as associated company, Raglan Nickel Mines Ltd., is following up his nickel-copper discovery.
Because of its remoteness from the centres of population, the Ungava mine site requires careful planning. It is expected that eventually there will be a townsite, where the mine workers and their families will live. Roads and docks will have to be built, because the milled ore, or asbestos fibres, will have to be trucked to the coast, and then shipped by sea. If all goes well, Murray Mining will produce 3,000 tons of asbestos a day when its mill has been installed.
Murray Watts is satisfied that marine transportation from Ungava, even in a short shipping season, free from ice and winter storms, is economically possible. As he points out, Wakeham Bay is closer to the markets of Europe than is Montreal, the nearest seaport in eastern Canada.
Although he was fully involved in the asbestos and nickel-copper developments, Murray Watts still had within him the urge to explore. A further opportunity for a mineral hunt came to him in 1961 after he became president of British Ungava Explorations Ltd. This company was financed privately by Anglo-American Mining, of London and South Africa, Consolidated Mining and Smelting, of British Columbia: Falconbridge Nickel, Madsen Red Lake, Advance Red Lake, the Asbestos Corporation and Thayer Lindley, the man behind the spectacular Ventures-Falconbridge organization.
In mid-summer of 1962, Watts took off for Baffin Island in a light Cessna 108 piloted by Ron Sheardown. From late July until early August they flew over the northern part of the arid island, a total distance of 30, 000 miles in flying time that added up to 300 hours. Watts made a thorough systematic criss-cross low-level aerial examination of the terrain. The plane flew into and along chasms that furrowed the country, with Watts studying the rocky walls along the way. The Cessna followed the path of receding glaciers, and covered the uplands and plains for signs of minerals.
“People thought we were bats,” Watts said after his return to Toronto from his spectacular flight.
Anyone who may have thought Watts was out of his mind was disillusioned. In an area 45 miles from Milne Inlet and 600 miles north of Frobisher, a region of which no one had any previous geological knowledge, Watts found four deposits of high grade ore, which ranged in iron content from 65 to 70 percent.
Now British Ungava has under way a detailed on the spot exploration of 800 square miles of Baffin Island where Watts made his discovery. After the first operations, a sampling and geological study, a large development program has been planned.
The remoteness of Baffin Island from civilization does not perturb Murray Watts. To him, the problem of getting out the iron ore is much the same as the problem he and his associates face in Ungava. A port can be built, and there is a sufficiently long season, free from storms and ice, to permit economical shipping. The climate, although rough at times, is sufficiently equable to make production profitable at competitive prices, Watts believes.
In 1962, Murray Watts and associates organized a firm of consulting geologist and engineers – Watts, Griffis and McOuat Limited. With him in this Company are two enterprising young men, Dr. Tom Griffis and Jack McOuat. Like Murray Watts, they see a bright future for the mining industry in far northern Canada.
Watts has encouraged young men because he believes that they are best suited for exploring and developing the barrenlands. Young men, he thinks, can work in this different environment without the inhibitions and hesitations that men who have spent their lives in more conventional mining in the country may acquire.
When Murray Mining embarked upon its full-scale program in 1960, all of its technical men in Ungava were under 30 years of age, and all of the field crew were under 40.
Murray Watts believes that young men will find endless opportunities in far northern Quebec and the eastern Arctic territories of Canada. Canadians, he thinks, are best at exploring and prospecting; they can work under adverse conditions and still produce results. Canadians are the people who will push back their own northern frontiers and bring new natural assets and fortunes to themselves and their country.
This article, published in Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine, in 1982, tells the story of a typical WGM project - this time Al Masane in Saudi Arabia...
In 1967, a prospector in the Saudi Arabian desert came across the site of ancient mine workings. This was "Al Masane", Arabic for "the workings" or "factories". These abandoned smelter hearths were indications of copper, zinc, gold, and silver ores first exploited more than 2,000 years ago.
Preliminary studies indicated the presence of 3-4 million tonnes of ore, which assayed up to 1.5 percent copper and 8 percent zinc. Mining would be economic if reserves could be expanded. The orebodies dip steeply and occur along narrow valleys with ragged slopes that physically limit surface drillsites and make it impossible to drill the zones to depth. Underground access was essential.
The call went out for tenders on a program to include 700 m of -15% decline and 2,750 m of drifts and crosscuts, in preparation for 20,000 mm of diamond drilling. Maximum distance from the portal was specified to be 2,000 m.
Mining contractors in Saudi Arabia and Europe submitted bids that ranged from $15 million to $20 million (1979 US) and called for crews of 40 to 80 people, requiring 15 to 24 months to complete the mining portion of the project. Watts, Griffis and McOuat proposed complete mine development in less than 11 months with a highly skilled staff of 40 prepared to establish drafts and declines with an eye to eventual production rather than minimal exploration requirements. The proposal stated total costs, including underground drilling, would not exceed $13.5 million.
WGM resolved not only to reduce costs and shorten the project timetable, but also to provide maximum value to the mine owners including more useful underground openings, provision of modern mine equipment, and excellent subterranean working conditions.
Two 1.5-m spiral steel ventilation ducts were installed along the wall of the decline, each servicing one of the two main-level drives. These were manufactured on site. Because of the friction-efficiency of the galvanized steel used, enough air was delivered for a very comfortable working environment with low power output: a 200-hp fan, supplemented by a 50-hp booster fan in each drive, supplied 60-m3/sec of air. Side mounting the tubing was easier and safer than installing it overhead. Vent ducts were positioned above drainage ditches along the decline and drift walls. Dry, proper roadbed allowed faster transport over the 2-km distance to the mine portal, and haulage vehicles suffered less wear.
The original drift-size specifications were increased 15 percent to 6.4-m wide by 4-m high. This allows a 26-ton truck and a 5-yard LHD unit to pass and permit end-loading at any point, increasing mucking efficiency. When the mine goes into production, the opening will be large enough for the use of either conveyors or large underground mine trucks. Mucking in these production-sized declines and drifts was rapid, and the faster forward advance offset the extra capital investment.
To shorten scheduling, a small, high-trained crew was chosen over larger, less experienced crews willing to work for lower wages. Modern high productivity equipment was chosen and carefully evaluated for dependability. Using all-electric equipment increased efficiency. The electric equipment did not produce smoke or heat, and important advantage in a hot desert environment, and operated with less noise than equivalent diesel or air-driven machinery.
Diesel-electric generators were used to supply electric power. One operating 900-kW unit provided all of the power requirements for the mine and camp, with a daily fuel consumption of 3,600 l. This is approximately half of what would have been needed if conventional compressed-air drilling, diesel loading, and a less efficient ventilation system were used.
The equipment WGM introduced into Saudi Arabia is still in the process of being accepted by the mining industry. But in the firm's evaluation, this new equipment proved successful and when actual mining begins, no changeover will be necessary.
The mining part of the project was completed in less than 11 months, and included 3,847 m of total lineal advance and the excavation of 273,000 tonnes of rock. The co-owners of the mine, Arabian Shield Development Company and the National Mining Company, were left with an operable camp; the first phase of a mine, made to demanding physical and environmental requirements; and a complete set of modern mine equipment with a 1980 resale value of $1.2 million - all ready for production at any time.
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