ROMANCE OF NICKEL

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1930, Page 3

ROMANCE OF NICKEL

[ CANADIAN DISCOVERIES. VANCOUVER, October 29. The discovery of nickel, called after “Old Nick” on account of its hardness, is one of Canada’s modern romances. The time of its discovery and the circumstances surrounding it have a peculiar resemblance to the events associated with the discovery of silver at Broken Hill. In 1884, a prospector named Tom Frood heard from a trapper of a showing of mineral near his trapline. Frood and another prospector named A. J. Cockburn set out to locate it. They found the vein, and having quarrelled, settled their dispute by partitioning it.

Frood’s share afterwards became the Mbrid Nickel Coinpany, Cckbiirn’s the International Nickel Company, both famous all over the world. In. Broken Hill, one of the three discoverers of silver, a boundary rider, sold his share to his mates for £2O0 —a share that afterwards was worth £2,000,000. Nothing was done with the nickel discovery for fifteen years. In the next throe years, 110,000 tons ■were mined. Then there was another lapse of eleven years. Doubt existed about the oro reserves at Frood, and the mine ceased working, the houses and buildings being moved away. Years afterwards, in 1925, drills were again set up on tho Frood, which, as the work proceeded, revealed the huge masses of rich copper ore that have made this mine ono of the wonders of the mining world The two coiripanies pooled their interests, and. were amalgamated under tho name of the International Niqkel Company. There is romance also in the first discovery of nickel tin the Sudbury field. Searching for a man that was lost, Dr. Howey found him sitting on a small hill. Tho doctor saw copper nearby, and took samples to the geo-

logical surveyor in the neighbourhood. They were pronounced valueless. When the Canadian Pacific railway was taken through the hill, the construction gangs exposed a bed of copper nickel ore. On Dr. Howey’s hill, pronounced valueless, was developed the famous Murray mine, which later passed into tlio control of the Brtish Government as an independent source of nickel for purposes of the Great War John Flanagan, a blacksmith on tire construction gang, made the discovery. Aroused by the appearance of “red nhud” on a road alongside right-of-way, Flanagan dug deeper, and disclosed solid copper* ore. Tho great steel and armament makers of England and Europe quickly realised the importance of the new nickel deposits. Supplies had previously come from New Caledonia, and there was at one time a complete dearth of the metal. Sir John A. MacDonald and Sir Charles Tupper, two of Canada’s Prime Ministers, joined in hailing the impetus nickel was destined to impart to Canada’s prosperity. - The latter foresaw the manufacture of nickel steel —a vision which has not yet been fulfilled.