Birchtree Mine Site
The nickel find near Manasan Falls, four kilometres east of Birchtree Lake and about five kilometres southwest of Thompson, that would become Birchtree Mine was first announced publicly to the world on April 22, 1964 by Henry S. Wingate, chairman of the board of the International Nickel Company of Canada (INCO) Limited…..Birchtree mine originally opened in 1965 until 1978 when it was put in “standby” until 1988. The mine reopened again in 1989. For most of a decade in the 1980s, as the mine was on “care and maintenance” because of unfavourable market conditions from December 1977 through 1989. ….As well as nickel, Birchtree has deposits of copper, cobalt, gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Re-opening of Birchtree was considered in 1981, but was deferred in favour of development of the Thompson open pit mine. Care and maintenance is a term used in the mining industry to describe processes and conditions on a closed minesite where there is potential to recommence operations at a later date. During a care and maintenance phase, production is stopped but the site is managed to ensure it remains in a safe and stable condition. (It closed down again in 2017) These were excerpts from John Barker’s 2017 article.
https://soundingsjohnbarker.wordpress.com/…/closing…/
Closing Time: Last hoist for Thompson’s Birchtree Mine
Birchtree Mine: The only experience that I had with this mine is the time that I was a Metropol Security guard there. I worked night shift, 7pm tp 7 am. I was out there all by myself. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was near Ospwagan Lake and Manasan Falls. Making my rounds around the site, around 1982 was harrowing at times. I was by myself. I would walk through the office space. Some of the tiles were falling down. The toilets were being used several times and not flushed. In the hoist area the metal stairs were rusting. At times, when it as raining, the phone connections were made and phone rang mysteriously in the distance. (so the story goes). I was able to climb the stairs to the top of the headframe and look from that high point. Outside there was a toilet built over a huge pipe of rushing water. That was an experience! The mine shaft, a couple thousand feet down in the ground, was very dark and steam was coming up out of the hole. It had an “earthy” smell to it. It got pretty boring in the middle of the night. One night I heard a “thud…thud…thud”. I looked into the garbage barrel and there was a little mouse who fell into the pail. It was jumping to get out and couldn’t get high enough. I tried to get it into a box so I could take it home as a pet. As soon as my arm got close, it jumped on my arm and ran up my arm and leaped to the floor to safety. I could feel it little mouse toes grip to my arm with every bounding stride it made. When I first started working nights at BIrchtree Mine at night, my mom and dad felt sorry for me and my dad made the ten mile drive out to see how I was doing. I was making friends with mice and exploring a spooky mine site. But I was OK.
Birchtree Mine Opened 1965 Active 1965 – 1978
1988 – 2017
Closed 2017
Birchtree Mine is an underground nickel mine, owned and operated by Vale Inco in the city of Thompson, Manitoba, Canada. It lies in the nickel containing Thompson Belt, a geologic feature associated with the Circum-Superior Belt large igneous province throughout the Superior craton.
History
Birchtree mine originally opened in 1965 until 1978 when it was put in “standby” until 1988. The mine reopened again in 1989. In 2000, Inco authorized US$48 million to deepen the mine to 4,100 feet (1,250 m), expanding production to 3,800 tons per day. The Deepening Project allowed Inco to access ore between the 3950 level and 2300 level. In 2002, Birchtree Mine started producing ore from between 2750 level and 2300 level. In 2003, the first ore was extracted between the 3950 and 3450 level.
Safety
In 2005, Birchtree mine was the recipient of the John T. Ryan Trophy for having achieving the lowest accident frequency of all Canadian metal mines. In 2008, it received the regional John T. Ryan trophy for the Prairies & Northwest Territories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birchtree_Mine
The nickel find near Manasan Falls, four kilometres east of Birchtree Lake and about five kilometres southwest of Thompson, that would become Birchtree Mine was first announced publicly to the world on April 22, 1964 by Henry S. Wingate, chairman of the board of the International Nickel Company of Canada (INCO) Limited…..Birchtree mine originally opened in 1965 until 1978 when it was put in “standby” until 1988. The mine reopened again in 1989. For most of a decade in the 1980s, as the mine was on “care and maintenance” because of unfavourable market conditions from December 1977 through 1989. ….As well as nickel, Birchtree has deposits of copper, cobalt, gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Re-opening of Birchtree was considered in 1981, but was deferred in favour of development of the Thompson open pit mine. Care and maintenance is a term used in the mining industry to describe processes and conditions on a closed minesite where there is potential to recommence operations at a later date. During a care and maintenance phase, production is stopped but the site is managed to ensure it remains in a safe and stable condition. (It closed down again in 2017) These were excerpts from John Barker’s 2017 article.
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