Mining has a significant presence in every part of Canada — from the east to west coasts to the far north. This book tells the stories of the people and companies who built Canada's mining industry, created new towns and generated jobs by the thousands. It highlights the experiences of those who lived and worked in mining towns across the country, the rise of major mining companies and the emergence of Toronto and Vancouver as centres of global mining finance. It also addresses the effects mining has had on Indigenous communities and the environmental damage it has caused.
The story begins with the development of copper mining and trading networks among pre-contact Indigenous groups in Canada. Industrial-scale mining of iron and coal emerged in Quebec and Nova Scotia in the eighteenth century. The book describes the growth of mining towns in northern Ontario, Quebec and western Canada in the nineteenth century, and the famous Cariboo and Klondike Gold Rushes.
Demand for strategic minerals and metals during the Second World War and the Cold War pushed development into remote northern regions. The most recent period includes the Northwest Territories diamond rush and controversial expansion into Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” region.
Much has been written about the history of individual mining towns, mines and miners. This book offers a readable account of the full scope of this industry’s story.
Mining Country is richly illustrated with more than 150 photos drawn from every period of the industry’s history up to the present.
JOHN SANDLOS teaches history at Memorial University of Newfoundland. With a Ph.D. on northern wildlife, he has devoted much of his research in the past decade to mining history. He is the author of Hunters at the Margin: Native People and Wildlife Conservation in the Northwest Territories. He lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
ARN KEELING is a historical geographer at Memorial University of Newfoundland. His teaching and research focus on the environmental-historical geography of Western and Northern Canada. In recent years, his research has explored the historical and contemporary encounters of northern Indigenous communities with large-scale resource developments. He lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Email to a colleague
