by Guest » December 30, 2022, 8:55 am
From what I could find, the first shipment of ore from Little Current was in 1956. I couldn't find anything on when the last load was shipped. Here are some excerpts from a January 3, 1959 newspaper article from the Escanaba Daily Press titled "Little Current, East Of Soo, Joins Great Lakes Ore Ports" which was reprinted from Skillings' Mining Review:
...For many years an important coal unloading and transshipping point on the Canadian Pacific Ry., Little Current made its first shipments of iron ore in 1956.
Iron recovery operations at International Nickel Co. of Canada Ltd's Copper Cliff, Ont, plant near Sudbury (where iron is recovered from nickeliferous pyrrhotite and pelletized into a high grade furnace product) brought about the first shipments. Since that time, movement of this material has expanded somewhat, totaling about 75,000 tons in 1958.
Then in 1958 another iron product was handled over the Little Current dock - iron sinter recovered as a by-product from Noranda Mines, Ltd's sulphuric acid plant at nearby Cutler, Ont.
The Canadian Pacific Railway referred to the Little Current coal dock as the "Turner Dock":
While the Turner dock is a major coal handling installation on the Great Lakes, it has also doubled these past three seasons as an iron ore loading facility, Employing the regular coal handling equipment, the Little Current dock has shipped minor tonnages of iron pellets and sinter, and there is good prospect that iron ore shipments from this area could reach sizable proportions in succeeding years.
The first iron ore shipments out of Little Current were recorded in 1956, when a small tonnage of International Nickel's iron concentrate pellets was handled from railroad cars into lake freighters over the dock. These pellets move in gondola type railroad cars over the Canadian Pacific Ry. from Sudbury to Turner, a distance of about 80 miles.
In the 1958 navigation season there were 11 cargoes of Inco pellets loaded out over the CPR dock at Little Current. The tonnage, which totaled 73,229 net tons, was about 7,000 tons under the pre-season estimate due to a strike that was in effect at Sudbury in the later stages of the season.
Ships of the Algoma Central & Hudson Bay Ry. fleet handled the Inco pellets from the CPR dock.
In addition to the Inco pellets, the Little Current dock of the CPR was the scene, commencing in 1958, of shipments of a by-product iron sinter that originated at Cutler, Ont. At this point on the North Channel of Lake Huron about 30 miles northwest of Little Current, Noranda Mines, Ltd., has a new sulphuric acid plant producing about 1,000 tpd of sulphuric acid from pyritic ores and native sulphur for the uranium plants in the Elliot Lake district some 20 miles inland north of Cutler. Along with the sulphuric acid, Noranda's plant also produces approximately 300 tons per day of iron products which are agglomerated by sintering and shipped by rail to Little Current for loading into lake vessels. This material, likewise, is a high grade iron product.
Noranda's sinter also arrives at Little Current in open top gondola type railroad cars, the railroad distance between the two points being about 75 miles.
In another new ore movement through the port of Little Current commencing in 1958, zinc concentrates, arriving at the port by rail, have been loaded directly from railroad cars into the holds of small foreign ships for overseas delivery. These concentrates originated at Willroy Mines Ltd.'s mine and mill operations in the Manitouwadge area north of Lake Superior (about 40 miles northeast of Marathon), The concentrates were moved by rail some 448 miles to Little Current and loaded into the lower holds of small ocean-going ships for delivery direct to Antwerp, Belgium.
The first zinc concentrate cargo was unloaded on July 17, 1958, and during the season 17 such cargoes were loaded. Total tonnage of zinc concentrates handled over the CPR dock amounted to 17,374 net tons. The ships took cargoes ranging in size from as little as 365 tons to as much as 1,660 tons, the average being very close to 1,000 tons.
From what I could find, the first shipment of ore from Little Current was in 1956. I couldn't find anything on when the last load was shipped. Here are some excerpts from a January 3, 1959 newspaper article from the Escanaba Daily Press titled "Little Current, East Of Soo, Joins Great Lakes Ore Ports" which was reprinted from Skillings' Mining Review:
[quote]...For many years an important coal unloading and transshipping point on the Canadian Pacific Ry., Little Current made its first shipments of iron ore in 1956.
Iron recovery operations at International Nickel Co. of Canada Ltd's Copper Cliff, Ont, plant near Sudbury (where iron is recovered from nickeliferous pyrrhotite and pelletized into a high grade furnace product) brought about the first shipments. Since that time, movement of this material has expanded somewhat, totaling about 75,000 tons in 1958.
Then in 1958 another iron product was handled over the Little Current dock - iron sinter recovered as a by-product from Noranda Mines, Ltd's sulphuric acid plant at nearby Cutler, Ont.[/quote]
The Canadian Pacific Railway referred to the Little Current coal dock as the "Turner Dock":
[quote]While the Turner dock is a major coal handling installation on the Great Lakes, it has also doubled these past three seasons as an iron ore loading facility, Employing the regular coal handling equipment, the Little Current dock has shipped minor tonnages of iron pellets and sinter, and there is good prospect that iron ore shipments from this area could reach sizable proportions in succeeding years.
The first iron ore shipments out of Little Current were recorded in 1956, when a small tonnage of International Nickel's iron concentrate pellets was handled from railroad cars into lake freighters over the dock. These pellets move in gondola type railroad cars over the Canadian Pacific Ry. from Sudbury to Turner, a distance of about 80 miles.
In the 1958 navigation season there were 11 cargoes of Inco pellets loaded out over the CPR dock at Little Current. The tonnage, which totaled 73,229 net tons, was about 7,000 tons under the pre-season estimate due to a strike that was in effect at Sudbury in the later stages of the season.
Ships of the Algoma Central & Hudson Bay Ry. fleet handled the Inco pellets from the CPR dock.
In addition to the Inco pellets, the Little Current dock of the CPR was the scene, commencing in 1958, of shipments of a by-product iron sinter that originated at Cutler, Ont. At this point on the North Channel of Lake Huron about 30 miles northwest of Little Current, Noranda Mines, Ltd., has a new sulphuric acid plant producing about 1,000 tpd of sulphuric acid from pyritic ores and native sulphur for the uranium plants in the Elliot Lake district some 20 miles inland north of Cutler. Along with the sulphuric acid, Noranda's plant also produces approximately 300 tons per day of iron products which are agglomerated by sintering and shipped by rail to Little Current for loading into lake vessels. This material, likewise, is a high grade iron product.
Noranda's sinter also arrives at Little Current in open top gondola type railroad cars, the railroad distance between the two points being about 75 miles.
In another new ore movement through the port of Little Current commencing in 1958, zinc concentrates, arriving at the port by rail, have been loaded directly from railroad cars into the holds of small foreign ships for overseas delivery. These concentrates originated at Willroy Mines Ltd.'s mine and mill operations in the Manitouwadge area north of Lake Superior (about 40 miles northeast of Marathon), The concentrates were moved by rail some 448 miles to Little Current and loaded into the lower holds of small ocean-going ships for delivery direct to Antwerp, Belgium.
The first zinc concentrate cargo was unloaded on July 17, 1958, and during the season 17 such cargoes were loaded. Total tonnage of zinc concentrates handled over the CPR dock amounted to 17,374 net tons. The ships took cargoes ranging in size from as little as 365 tons to as much as 1,660 tons, the average being very close to 1,000 tons.[/quote]