Tunnel to Riches

Tunnel to Riches. . , The Little Silver vein was discovered in 1903 by a French Canadian lumberman named Tom Hebert. It was subsequently acquired by the Nipissing Mining Company Limited and was to become the first of many producing veins for the company. The actual vein consisted of a soft, white mineral called calcite (CaCO₃), native silver, cobalt, nickel and arsenic. It averaged 20 cm in width and yielded over 700,000 ounces of silver by 1932, for a 1986 value of $4,760,000. The narrow width of this cut graphically illustrates the confining conditions under which the miners laboured to recover the wealth trapped within the rocks. , Mining was originally carried out using steam-powered drills and hoists. Cheaper power became available by 1910, with the development of the Ragged Chutes Compressed Air Plant on the Montreal River. It supplied a natural source of compressed air to most of the mines in the Cobalt camp until fire destroyed it in September, 1981. , The vein was initially mined from the top of the hill, down to a depth of about 10 m. At the base of the cliff, a tunnel, or “adit”, was driven in along the vein, which was then mined upwards or “stoped”. The vein was later accessed from deeper Nipissing workings and was stoped until the adit level was reached. The adjoining photograph portrays the workings as they appeared in 1906.