Bet you didn't know....How Big Was It?

"...we found the mining operation of Steep Rock Iron Mines Ltd. generated a total of $2.3 billion in GPP and $1.2 billion in wages and salaries (both in constant 1986 dollars), and almost 48,000 person-years of employment in the province over the 1946-1980 period. The increased economic activity in turn generated an accumulated $191 million (constant 1986 dollars) in Ontario Government revenue."

Woods Gordon report for Steep Rock Resources, 1986. p.2.

.. and these figures didn't include the Caland operation which could not have been opened without the prior exploration and property development by Steep Rock Iron Mines (SRIM).


Combine these impressive figures with the oft-quoted statistics:
  • double the earth removal in excavating the Panama Canal;
  • enough water pumped in one eight-hour period to supply the city of Montreal (1978 figures);
  • in each working week, one dredger alone removed the same cubic yardage of earth that was taken from Toronto's entire Yonge Street subway excavation;
  • volume of ore taken from the mines was enough to produce every steel part used in every automobile that has ever been driven in Canada (1978 figures).


How Big Is It now and What Will Happen To It?

From Atikokan District Land Use Guideline, MNR document dated Sept. 1989:

"The area consists of 5, 260 hectares of land formerly owned and operated by a mining company, Steep Rock Resources Inc. The land was actively open pit mined for approximately 45 years, resulting in numerous large deep pits. Returned to the Crown in 1988, the area is located 4 km north of the Atikokan townsite and is completely within the boundaries of the Township of Atikokan. According to the Township of Atikokan Official Plan, the surrender site is designated as a Resource Development Area, allowing for the location of major industrial development.

The area has considerable potential for recreational, industrial, tourism and resource extraction activities."

The abandoned minesite contains many kilometers of driveable roads. Defined as "passive recreational", the primary informal use of "the pits", among people local to the area includes:
  • -- a commercial fish farm in one of the lakes;
  • -- recreational cycling, both motorized and non-motorized;
  • -- snowmobiling, big truck races, mud races;
  • -- hunting, target practice;
  • -- dumping and setting fire to abandoned vehicles;
  • -- dumping old refrigerators;
  • -- growing marijuana;
  • -- boat racing
  • -- Sport Days activities;
  • -- pit parties;
  • -- dumping ground.
If no intervention takes place to increase the awareness of the importance of the operation, not only to Atikokan, but also to Canada and the United States, the inappropriate use of the pits will continue and the story of Steep Rock Iron Mines will remain untold to new generations.

The only reasons the main roads through the site are still driveable after 20 years is because they were originally engineered to handle a continuous stream of 40 - 60 ton Euclid and Lectra Haul trucks.

The passive naturalization of the site makes it a valuable a "view" as Kakabeka Falls and Ouimet Canyon in nearby Thunder Bay. The view from the tops of the nearly vertical cliffs is spectacular, not in the least because it is obvious that while human intervention scarred the landscape in the pursuit of iron ore, Nature has, for the past twenty years, sculpted it in shades of green, with water, rain, wind and winter, softening the original harshness of the pits.



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