Gifts (Nickel and Copper) from the Heavens

Lukas Irons shared a link about Vale closing the century old Frood mine in Sudbury Ontario.

cbc.ca1

The company says Frood is the only area where it will suspend operations.
However, Vale spokesperson Angie Robson said it will also look for other ways to cut costs, thanks to a sharp decline in metal prices. Prices have dropped 50 per cent since 2006, when Vale took over Inco.
"During the war, Frood supplied about 40 per cent of the nickel that went into artillary weapons." [cbc.ca1]

Satellite     Frood is in the upper-right corner of this mining area.

The company said the mine’s future has been under review for some time citing metal prices, “ongoing market challenges, and recent seismic activity that restricted production below the 3,000-foot level. [NorthernOntarioBusiness]

The articles indicate that the ore left in this century old mine has become low grade and the mine was nearing the end of its life cycle. Judging by all of the landscars on the satellite image, there is still a lot of mining in the area.

Dennis DeBruler So we are talking about nickel and copper. The restriction of below 3000 feet because of "seismic activity" is interesting. Unlike the oil producers in Oklahoma who can claim it is somebody else's wastewater well that is causing peoples dishes to rattle (and walls to crack), this company is probably the only source of earth shaking.
Tyler L Hoar There are still several other places around Sudbury basin to mine the meteor. And with this being solid Canadian shield and not soft earth, you take seismic activity seriously.
Dennis DeBruler A meteor? Fascinating.
Tyler L Hoar Comet, Meteor, Asteroid. Some massive object from outer space hit the area a loong looong time ago. 

cbc.ca2
Joe Petrus studied rock samples to try and determine what hit Sudbury 1.8 billion years ago. (Jenifer Norwell/CBC)
[Joe concluded that it was a comet, not an asteroid, that blasted a hole 14 kilometres deep.]

It’s been long believed the Sudbury Basin was shaped by an asteroid that hit the region more than a billion years ago, but a Laurentian University researcher now says it was likely a comet.
The Sudbury Basin is the second largest known impact crater on Earth — 62 kilometres long, 30 kilometres wide and 15 kilometres deep. [cbc.ca2]

Actually, the object from space did not have the metals. But it created a hole deep enough that it allowed mantle to come up and fill the basin. "A subsequent shock wave shattered the surrounding rocks, riddling them with fissures and faults that filled up with precious minerals from the melted rock below." It was discovered in 1885 while building the Canadian Pacific Railway through the region. [cbc.ca2]

Update: When a Northern Ontario article about the closing of a crushing plant did not mention until the near the end that the metal being processed was nickel, I asked if that was the only metal in Northern Ontairio. The answer reminded me of this posting.
William Littrell Northern Ontario (North of Parry Sound)

Gold
Platinum
Cobalt
Iron ore
Diamonds
Chromite
Nickel 
Copper
Garnet
Talc
Magnesite
Zinc
Silver
Platinum Group Metals

https://www.investinontario.com/mining#Explore

http://www.oma.on.ca/en/ontariomining/Map.asp

A copper mine is reopening

Satellite

I have a reference for coal mining information (closures, openings, existence). But this article about White Pine Mine opening is the first time I have seen something about copper, so I dug a little deeper. The mine is to be reopened by Highland Copper.

Page 23 from Technical Report
Figure 5.1
Transportation access to the historical White Pine Mine showing M-64 and the Canadian National Railway spur.  

I came across an article about blowing up one of the "pillars" in the room-and-pillar mine. I can't find that one, but this abstract also describes the event:

On September 3, 1995, the White Pine Mine, which is owned by Copper Range Company, conducted the first of a planned series of explosive removal of existing pillars in their underground mining operations. The purpose of this operation is to evaluate the effectiveness of pillar rubbilization and roof collapse for planned in-situ leaching of the copper ore from the rock mass. This type of seismic source is unique in that a large, delay fired, explosive source was expected to be followed by collapse of the rock immediately above the explosion into the void created. Characterization of this type of mining source is of interest to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) R&D Seismic Program due to its unique properties. These include the controlled nature of the source in time, location, and magnitude, the fact that the source is located in an active region of underground mining, and that natural collapse of large portions of this mine have occurred in the recent past. The Mine operator is concerned with the characterization of the vibration induced by both the explosive and implosive components of the procedure and determination of the depth to which chimneying of the roof proceeded. This report will document: The reasons for conducting both the explosively induced collapse and the Los Alamos National Laboratory CTBT R&D Experimental Field Program experiment; The local and regional seismic, acoustic, and videographic data acquired; Analysis of the explosion/collapse seismic signal generated; Analysis and location of the aftershocks associated with the collapse; and Conclusions made concerning this type of mining explosion in relation to verification of a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. [ResearchGate]

I remember that the study placed several seismographs around the site before the explosion.

The key information is "in-situ leaching." Then I saw the following comment in Lucas Iron's sharing of the article link: William Littrell The Bad River Chippewa Indians will be pissed: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_River_Train_Blockade

The leaching is done with sulfuric-acid transported by railroad tank cars! And the EPA approved the leaching procedure with no public reviews. After the Chippewa Indians protested, the EPA agreed to review their decision. "Once the EPA looked closer, it raised enough questions that Inmet suspended its operations. In the face of legal battles over treaty rights, the company withdrew its mining-permit application the next spring."