Discovery
1909: Alfred Miller of Sunny Bank discovers copper ore in rock samples from the York River.
1921-22: The five Miller brothers undertake an expedition to discover the origins of the ore and their search ends near the Copper and Needle mountains. A. M. Bell, a geologist associated with Noranda mines, decides to begin a survey on the lands marked out by the Miller brothers.
1938-40: Noranda estimates that the potential reserves of Mount Copper and Mount Needle amount to 19.6 tons with an average ore content of .93%. The war interrupts the ongoing work.
1947: Gaspé Copper Mines (GCML) is incorporated.
Foundation
1951: Launching of the development work for the underground mine and the scouring of the opencast mine. Foundry construction. The whole of these works is evaluated at 35 million dollars.
1953: The Murdoch work camp becomes Murdochville in July. The town carries the name of the first company president, James Murdoch. More than 900 people work there and 300 houses will be built between1952 and 1953.
1956-57: The Gaspé Copper Mines reserves are evaluated at 67 million tons with average ore content of 1.3%, and the company numbers more than 950 employees. In 1957 a miners strike lasts seven and a half months… making it the longest conflict in the unionization period in Québec.
Exploitation
1968: Exploitation of Mount Copper’s opencast mine begins. Noranda employs more than 1000 people.
1974: Murdochville counts almost 5000 inhabitants, and approximately 2000 individuals work for Gaspé Copper Mines which franchised its name as Mines de cuivre Gaspé.
The first closings
1982: Mines Gaspé interrupts exploitation of the subterranean mine in July and the opencast mine in December. The exploitation of the ore treatment facility is also stopped for good in December. Half of the miners will lose their jobs.
1983: The foundry is henceforth supplied solely by imported ore.
1987: A fire provokes the abrupt stopping of exploitation of deposit E-32 only two years after its opening. A miner dies and 50 others spend 24 hours 3000 feet underground.
1989: Mining operations resume in E-32 and the northwest C zone. The mine starts up again with 500 miners.
1990-96: Mines Gaspé invests almost 30 million dollars to develop the last known deposits on the E-29, E-34 and E-38 properties.
1991-1999: The foundry at Mines Gaspé, which employs 400 people, continues its copper concentrate treatment operations.
Exploitation ends
October 1999: The end of mining exploitation at Murdochville due to the exhaustion of ore reserves. Three hundred people lose their jobs for good.
November 30th, 2001: Noranda annonces the temporary closing of its Murdochville installations for six months.
March 28th, 2002: Noranda annonces its intention to close the Murdochville foundry permanently.
April 30th, 2002: Permanent closure of the foundry. Three hundred workers lose their jobs and the Murdochville population questions itself on the town’s future.
June 16-17th, 2002: During a popular consultation organized by the Métallos’ Union, 70% of the Murdochville population decide to close the town.
August 25th, 2002: During a referendum organized by the municipality, 65% of the population vote for closure. The mayor, Marc Minville, considers to have received a mandate permitting him to negotiate compensation for the citizens with the two levels of government. It was a question of a consultative vote since only the Québec government can decide to end a municipality’s charter.
New orientations
Confronted with massive loss of employment in 1999 and 2002, Murdochville has elaborated a development strategy based on sustainable development. Amongst the orientations accepted, renewable energies, recreational tourism and the new information and communication technologies condition all economic repositioning efforts for the Town.
|
