$70.00 CAD
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Beautiful large photo of the mine site, with the headframe, mill, buildings, railway cars.etc. At this time it was owned by Mond Nickel.
This mine was in the famous mining camp of Sudbury Northern Ontario.
On back written:
Frood Extension Mine Sudbury Ont. (Mond Nickel).
Also stamp:
Handwritten photo #29624
Comes from the estate of a French collector who died in 1947.
Paper is 'warped'.
19.5 x 24 cm
(Red text is an electronic watermark that is not physically part of the photo for sale)
The Mond Nickel Company was by then searching for additional ores to honour its war commitment. In 1913 the two claims forming the Frood Extension were extensively probed by drill crews and shaft sinkers. A large camp was even built to house the men. The Frood spur was pushed from the Stobie Mine's spur to reach the site. By 1915 ore was disclosed at depth and work was discontinued when the shaft reached the 1,000-foot level. After the Mond property was shut down, the post office and school quickly followed suit.
...In 1925 Mond also reopened their deposit and began preliminary work by erecting a proper shaft house, hoist and additional buildings. This time there was no turning back.
Mond began erecting a town site on the property, hurriedly building 25 homes, a three-storey bunkhouse and cookery. They also established a company store and added a schoolhouse. The two sites filled quickly accommodating 400 residents...
By 1926 the die was cast. Both companies had deepened their production shafts down to 2,000 feet and began raising ore. However the fragile balance established by both firms was about to become upset. In 1926 it was found that the Frood Mine and Frood Extension were one continuous ore body. ..
In order to process all the Frood ores, Mond would have had to spend over $12 million to expand their smelting, refinery, and mine facilities. INCO had already spent $10 million on the property by 1926 and was planning to spend another $14 million to complete its necessary upgrades. Both firms realized that each others' operations would soon hamper the workings and tie up good rich ore, lost in the creation of buffer zones. Millions would end up being wasted by duplicating the same processing facilities, and would create an unsafe working environment for the hundred of miners working below ground. There was only one solution, a merger between the two largest nickel producers, the Mond Nickel Company and INCO.
...On January the 1st 1929, the merger was completed quietly without any complications or changes.
