TIMMINS REPORT Kidd Creek completes new silo

Work is nearing completion on a new cement silo at the Kidd Creek Mines minesite 15 miles north of Timmins city centre.

Eric Belford, vice-president mining for the Falconbridge Ltd.-owned company, says the new silo will join two others in storing cement, which is used to backfill mined-out areas in Kidd Creek’s two underground mines.

The need for a new silo arose following a tragic accident in November, 1986, when an 800-tonne, 70-ft-tall cement silo collapsed, trapping 43-year-old Maurice Gervais at his work station beneath the silo. Gervais was killed instantly in the accident.

Belford said the new silo was a concrete structure, which was being designed and constructed “by experts in the field” and would have a number of safety features to guard against its collapse.

Capacity of the new silo is 1,000 tonnes, he said, adding that an accident similar to the 1986 accident was unlikely to happen again because the silo operator will be located some distance from the new silo, not directly under it, as was the case in 1986.

Not everyone with the mining and exploration industries is in favor of the free trade agreement recently signed by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Timmins geologist Don Garner spent a good deal of time during the latter part of 1987 to convince local residents the free trade agreement wasn’t all it was cracked up to be by the Mulroney government. At the very least, said Garner, Mulroney should have called an election over the free trade issue.

“I think the mining business in Canada is healthy enough without free trade,” he said. “I have seen figures that show Canada already controls one-third of the gold mines in the United States, so what does the mining industry need free trade for?”

Reminded that it was the base metal sector that might benefit most from the agreement, Garner countered that Ontario already has a policy in place banning the smelting and refining of Canadian ores outside the country. He wonders whether U.S. interests would begin building smelters and refineries to process Canadian ores.

Garner is convinced that if Canada can’t go it alone, Japan would make a much better free trade partner than the United States, a country which, he said, “has the most foolish foreign policy in the world.”

Timmins-Chapleau mp Aurele Gervais says the occupations of hard rock and drift miners has officially been designated as a skill- shortage occupation in Ontario. And, to help alleviate the critical shortage of miners in the north, the Timmins Industrial Training Advisory Committee is sponsoring a miners’ training program at area mines. Gervais said the special designation was the result of much work by titac, the Porcupine Mines Managers’ Association and the Ontario Mining Association.

There is a shortage of at least 200 miners in the Timmins area alone, he said, and the problem is every bit as serious in other mining communities. At Detour Lake alone, there was a shortage of 64 miners as of Dec 31.

Titac executive co-ordinator Olga Starcevic says that in the near future, probably mid-February, titac will be training a total of 24 hard rock and drift miners, likely at the Dome mine and at Giant Yellowknife Mines’ Timmins division.

Five mines will benefit from the $115,000 program in terms of getting new miners. The program will train two miners for Belmoral Mines, which operates the Broulan and Vedron projects in Timmins, five for Giant Yellowknife Mines’ Timmins division, five for Placer Dome’s Dome Mines, four for Placer Dome’s Detour Lake mine and eight for Kidd Creek Mines.