During my ten years working for INCO, virtually all of the 70’s they were still very proud of their Monel, the Monel Division and their advancements with stainless steel. They had quite the research facility in Mississauga, down in Southern Ontario, near Toronto, in addition to manufacture of Monel in Sudbury. Great company to work for.
INCO sold out to Vale’, a Brazilian Company, in an irresistable stock price offering. Cannot blame the many many workers that made out like bandits on their stock share holdings and the stockholders themselves. The down side was loss of dividend and other revenue to Canada and the sovereignty that went along with a firm handle on the Nickel market.
When I worked in Sudbury as a junior geologist for INCO there were 33,000 employees. Today there are 2,200 in Sudbury working at Vale’.
Somebody somewhere is making one big pile of loot.
Thanks for this Wanswheel…I had no idea the roof of Pennsylvania Station in New York City was made of Monel.
Was the contraction in number of workers at Sudbury due to automation or fall-off in production?
Midland Mike and all—Vale’ is a big multinational and concerned with the " big picture" …they can control the price of nickel, to an extent anyway, by opening and closing different streams of production all over the world. When they purchased INCO the price of Nickel was close to $24.00 a pound, China, Indonesia and India were in full swing into their big run to modernize and metal prices seemed poised to stay high for a long time…then the bottom fell out, to $6.00 a pound. Vale’ shuttered several high cost very very deep mines in the area,… Canada signed on to Kyoto which limited smelting and refining, …electricity pricing, once very abundudant and inexpensive went through the roof as Ontario pursued its green agenda, the first to do so, with devastating results. A strong anti-mining agenda was enforced by an unsophisticated and ingenious government. Vale’ could get production to meet demands from low cost mines in other parts of the world. Things spiralled down. A huge year long strike ensued.
Some of it was new mining methods and automation, especially in the mills.’ Vale’ was very skillful in manipulating things and getting what they needed. The age of getting the most out of the least had arrived.
INCO was a very “paternal” company, job for life, security, you were part of the family. I remember well the day I hired on, going to the company medical building for a physical and the company doctor telling me that “this is a great company to work for and will look after you for life” or something along those lines. Vale’ was like a corporate raider and activist investor rolled into one. The workforce was not expecting that treatment, stunned and shocked, they were taken by surprise. I suppose you could say the world caught up with Sudbury, but really and truly it was much the same story all over North America and the established industrialized world.
INCOs fierce competitor was Falconbridge, a
I drove thru Sudbury in 1979. I remember the black rock and lack of vegatation in the area. I saw that Inco gave tours, and I called the number, but they said that there were no tours that day. Not sure if it was because of the weekend, or if they were just not giving tours.
Was that Inco car in the photo a rotary dump car?
INCO’s own in house ore cars were built for use at the Clarabelle Mill and that was a rotary tipple, so yes rotary couplers on the one pictured.
Canadian Pacific also used their own 80 ton ore cars for use in Sudbury on the North Rim mines but they were bottom dump.
INCO also had side dump 30 ton Hart cars.
Wanswheel-- What a great post. Just luv those ads and pictures. Wonder how many people realize the amount and use of nickel in rail construction of rolling stock. The pictures are terrific.
There is a lot of buzz in the Mining industry that Vale’wants to sell off it’s Canadian assets and that an independent INCO re-emerges.
As for Stompin’ Tom…well Wanswheel, you actually made me cry. I played it for my Mining Class today ( in addition to a power point using those INCO ads…you’re a TA, teacher assistant, for this one!..and yes I gave you credit for it all)…me being a hard tough hardrock underground Mining guy and a frontier Northerner to boot, it really got to me, and I was reduced to an emotional vulnerable mess. Tried to hide it but it was obvious.
Been to the Horse Shoe Tavern a hundred times in my years in Toronto and saw Stompin’ Tom at least 20 times. He was always accessible and would talk to anyone. Nothing but fun. Not like today’s too cool crowd.
As the National Post characterized him:
‘He sang of a nation without politics, to its proud history, and to its better angels. His songs remind us that Canada matters — that we’ve built something amazing here, and must not take it for granted.’
Sadly he has passed. Always a humble man, he never forgot his Maritime roots ( New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland) and his long time spent in Ontario’s hard rock mining town of Timmins.
This one for Wanswheel becuase he has roots in PEI. ( Prince Edward Island)---- you just want to stomp along!
"Bud the Spud from the bright red mud, rolling down the highway smiling
Cause the spuds are big at the back of Buds rig
They’re from Prince Edward Island
They’re from Prince Edward Island"
Miningman, thanks for introducing me to Stompin’ Tom. I hear my grandfather’s accent.
https://archive.org/stream/transactionsofen31engi#page/n45/mode/2up/
Amazing they let him drive a streetcar for a music video years before MTV.
https://www.gettyimages.com/license/170557583
https://www.gettyimages.com/license/170557561
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/arts/stompin-tom-connors-canadian-singer-dies-at-77.html
All right, back on topic, roof of Penn Station:
I didn’t know what to say, and still don’t. Probably Stompin’ Tom would.
Wow! Got me goin’, too.
Wayne
Stompin’ Tom probably never stood under the roof of Penn Station, but he could’ve arrived from Toronto on the Maple Leaf or from Montreal on the Washingtonian. Don’t know if he was ever in Sudbury Thursday night.
https://archive.org/stream/TheRomanceOfNickel/TheRomanceOfNickel0001#page/n0/mode/2up
I have to wonder whether, if Penn Station had been built only a couple of years later, its roof would have been made of Maurer’s somewhat more famous nickel-bearing alloy, 18/10 or 18/8 chrome-nickel steel (the latter, more famous as Enduro KA-2 or Nirosta in the spire cladding of the Chrysler Building)
Interesting, the publicity given some of these materials. Some of the contemporary things from the Vanadium Company might be interesting.
Yes Vanadium. Goes back a long ways, was used in the chassis of the Ford Model T as an alloy. Great for high speed machinery, crankshafts, surgical instruments, much more, and now as the Anode for making Lithium Ion batteries, along with Cobalt, another metal finding itself in the spotlight.
We have occurances of Vanadium here in Northern Saskatchewan, one exploration outfit progressing well with an exploration shaft and working on their National Instrument 43-101, In that case it occurs as an iron vanadium oxide, Nolanite, in the Beaverlodge area.
There are 2 rare earth deposits under active exploration in the area as well.
Puzzling enough, it occurs as a by-product of uranium processing and oil sands processing …much written, but nothing doing. With the sheer volumes mined you would think it would make for a freebie bonus.
But!..what happened to the roof? Is it in the swamps of New Jersey, was it busted up and recycled? Some tycoon has it as their roof in their Hampton’s getaway?
Exploration diamond drill Northern Saskatchewan…Vanadium!
Most, if not all of Penn Station lies in the NJ Meadowlands. It was used as land fill for Giants Stadium, the race track, etc. A trucking company down there uses some of the pink granite columns as bumper blocks around their parking lot.
Yes I am aware of the fate of much of Pennsylvania Station but what became of the Monel roof! Perhaps the same…in da swamp.
Just guessing, but I’d suspect that Monel roof was sold for scrap value. Once Penn Station was demolished all the stone work was just broken rock, but I’m sure that Monel metal was worth money, and you don’t throw away money.
Hey, the PRR didn’t give away all those magnificent steam engines that went to the scrappers!