Raglan Mine is a large

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...

mining complex in the

Nunavik Nunavik (; ; iu, ᓄᓇᕕᒃ) comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec, part of the Nord-du-Québec region and nearly coterminous with Kativik. Covering a land area of north of the 55th parallel, it is the homeland of the I ...

region of northern

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. It is located approximately south of Deception Bay. Discovery of the deposits is credited to

Murray Edmund Watts Murray Edmund Watts, (1909 – October 8, 1982) was a Canadian mining engineer and prospector. He is known for a series of important ore discoveries in the Arctic regions, beginning at the age of 22, and continuing through a long career. Bi ...

in 1931 or 1932. It is owned and operated by Glencore Canada Corporation. The mine site is located in sub-arctic

permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surfac ...

of the Cape Smith Belt, with an average underground temperature of .

Transportation and accommodations

The complex is served by and operates the Kattiniq/Donaldson Airport, which is west of the principal mine site. There is a gravel road leading from the mine site to the seaport on Deception Bay. It is the only road of any distance in the province north of the 55th parallel. As the complex is remote from even the region's

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, ...

communities, workers must lodge at the mine site, typically for weeks at a time. From the mine site employees are flown to

Val D'or Val-d'Or (, , ; "Golden Valley" or "Valley of Gold") is a city in Quebec, Canada with a population of 32,752 inhabitants according to the Canada 2021 Census. The city is located in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region near La Vérendrye Wildlife R ...

, or in the case of Inuit employees, their home community. Ore produced from the mine is milled on-site then trucked to Deception Bay. From Deception Bay the concentrate is sent via cargo ship during the short shipping season (even by ice breaker it is only accessible 8 months of the year) to

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

, and then via rail to be smelted at Glencore's facilities in

Falconbridge, Ontario Nickel Centre (1996 census population 13,017) was a town in Ontario, Canada, which existed from 1973 to 2000. It was created as part of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury. On January 1, 2001, the town and the Regional Municipality were dissol ...

. Following smelting in Ontario, the concentrate is sent back to Quebec City via rail, loaded onto a ship and sent to the Glencore Nikkelverk in

Kristiansand, Norway Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...

to be refined.

Historical airline service

In 1979, Nordair was operating scheduled

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...

passenger jet service to the area with direct one stop flights twice a week from Montreal Dorval Airport.

Inuit relations

In February 1995

Falconbridge Ltd. Falconbridge Limited was a Toronto, Ontario-based natural resources company with operations in 18 countries, involved in the exploration, mining, processing, and marketing of metal and mineral products, including nickel, copper, cobalt, and plati ...

signed an Impact and Benefits Agreement (IBA) called the " Raglan Agreement (1995)" with the local Inuit community. Originally the complex was created with the participation of the Inuit owned Makivik Corporation, with the hopes of attracting employment for local residents. Glencore is working with the Kativik Regional Government and the Kativik School Board to educate the local Inuit population so they will be able to work at the mine, with a goal of the workforce being made up of 20% or more Inuit. Currently the mines' Inuit work force is close to 17% with most of the remainder being French Canadian from southern Quebec. Given the cultural mix at the complex, ethnic origin and discrimination are significant on-site issues.

Safety

Raglan mine has won the national

John T. Ryan Trophy John T. Ryan Trophies are awards of excellence presented by Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) to a mine in a given category which experiences the lowest accident frequency during the previous year in all of Canada. Th ...

in 2002, for having the lowest accident frequency of all metal mines in Canada. In 2007 it was awarded the F.J. O'Connell award by the Mining Association of Quebec for recording the most improvement of mine safety in Quebec.

Production

The mine was originally designed to produce 130,000 tons per year of ore concentrate, containing 21,000 tons of

, 5,000 tons of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

, 200 tons of

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, ...

, and a small amount of

precious metals Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high economic value. Chemically, the precious metals tend to be less reactive than most elements (see noble metal). They are usually ductile and have a high lustr ...

. Raglan currently produces 1.1 million tonnes of ore annually from three underground mines and two open pit operations. The original Impact and Benefits Agreement limits production to 1.3 million tonnes of ore per year, which is expected to be met by the end of 2008. Glencore is currently looking to increase production at the site to 2.0 million tonnes per year by 2013, this would require renegotiating the IBA. The local communities are open to the idea as it will benefit them both in profit sharing and increased direct employment. The expansion will require adding 210 rooms to the current employee accommodations to house the estimated 100 additional employees that will be added.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Mines in Quebec Nickel mines in Canada Underground mines in Canada Surface mines in Canada Xstrata Copper mines in Canada Cobalt mines in Canada