Canada Minerals

Canada Minerals and Industries

Hunting and fishing. – A certain importance still retains the hunting of fur animals, practiced since the end of the century. XVI and source, once, of great earnings for the trappeurs and the companies vying for monopoly over the immense reserves of game nestled in the northern regions. More than the still far depletion of these reserves, the breeding of these animals (essentially silver fox; later also marten, badger, muskrat, etc.), which began on the island of Principe, has brought a fierce blow to hunting. Edward around 1890, and thereafter rapidly extended to the entire Dominion. In 1926 there were 2702 factories in Canada for this purpose (70% in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and Prince Edward Island); the value of animals in captivity was 12 million dollars, that of exports, mainly to the United States, of over 20 million.

According to Ask4beauty, fishing is the oldest form of activity of the Whites in the Dominion; today it is carried out in three distinct areas: the Atlantic (especially cod, as on the Newfoundland shoals), the Great Lakes (even during the ice months) and along the Pacific, in which the latter region is more important for fishing. fresh water (salmon) in rivers (Skeena and Fraser) and in lakes, other than marine water, which is part of Vancouver and the Queen Charlotte Islands. For the value of the products, British Columbia is at the head of all the provinces, a prominence due substantially to the proportions assumed by salmon fishing, followed by that of cod, which actually exceeds it in quantity. Of the fishery products, 60% are exported (36 million dollars in 1926), almost 2/5 in the United States and less than 1/5 in England. It should be noted that alongside the employees of the industrial establishments that have life from this production (salting, drying, smoking, preservation, oil, etc.), fishing absorbs the activity of a large number of people, during more or less long periods of the working year (seasonal fishing). In the lakes region alone, the number of these approached 15,000 in 1928. In British Columbia, salmon fishing and processing required the employment of skilled Indian, Chinese and Japanese labor. a large number of people, during more or less long periods of the working year (seasonal fishing). In the lakes region alone, the number of these approached 15,000 in 1928. In British Columbia, salmon fishing and processing required the employment of skilled Indian, Chinese and Japanese labor. a large number of people, during more or less long periods of the working year (seasonal fishing). In the lakes region alone, the number of these approached 15,000 in 1928. In British Columbia, salmon fishing and processing required the employment of skilled Indian, Chinese and Japanese labor.

Minerals and industries. – Canada is among the best-supplied countries of the earth in terms of mineral wealth; the great superiority of the neighboring United States is due in part to the much better knowledge they have of their own wealth.

If we take away the oil, for which the Dominion cannot rely on anything but an insignificant production, despite the great efforts made to intensify it (Ontario, Alberta, lower Mackenzie), all the useful minerals are abundantly represented. For gold, Canada ranks third in the world, not far from the United States (Klondyke, but especially Ontario and Quebec; 50 tons per year, on average, in 1924-28), third or fourth for silver (increased from 100 to 65 tons on average from 1913 to 1924-28; 80% is supplied by Ontario and British Columbia) and the fifth for lead (British Columbia) and zinc (British Columbia and Quebec), the whose extraction has marked a significant increase in recent years (from 76.4 thousand tons in 1925 to 128 in 1926 for the first, from 24.9 to 68 thousand for the second). It can be said that the Dominion has conquered the world monopoly of nickel (90%, taken from the Sudbury district), while for asbestos the percentage reaches 85% (Quebec; with 280 million tons, for 10 million dollars in 1926). The quantity of copper is also noteworthy (55 thousand tons on average in 1924-28), for which Canada competes with Mexico and Peru; on the other hand, iron has decreased considerably (Ontario, Quebec): raw ore has gone from 1031 thousand tons in 1913 to 700 thousand, on average, in 1924-28; steel from 1059 thousand to 780 thousand tons in the same period.

As for hard coal, the production centers are located in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, which account for 40% of the Canadian quantity, in British Columbia (Vancouver Island) and in Alberta (Lethbridge), where they are the largest anthracitiferous reserves; the prairie region contains immense deposits of lignite in the subsoil, while peat is widely found in the province of Quebec. The extraction of anthracite has not yet resumed the extent of the pre-war period (13.5 million tons in 1913; 8.5 in 1925; 11.7 in 1926), but lignites have increased from 0.19 to 3, 29 million tons in the same period, with a crescendo that tends to be accentuated. Also noteworthy is the extraction of many other minerals (aluminum, platinum, graphite, asbestos, mica, antimony, arsenic, bismuth,

In general, it should be noted that the beginning of the extraction of minerals with modern systems is, in Canada, even more recent than in other areas of the same North American continent; which naturally also affects the development of industries. This is essentially an effect of the protectionism established in 1879, to defend British trade from competition from the United States, after which the march that fatally led him to assert his economic independence even with respect to the mother country began in the Dominion. To the deficiency of coal, the Dominion easily repairs, given its massive reserves of hydroelectric energy (calculated at over 30 million HP.): With 4.8 million HP. now installed it has been possible to cover about 2/5 of the total requirement,

Of the 23,000 plants (in round numbers) now in operation, the largest number deals with agricultural and forestry raw materials, offered by Dominion himself; especially the wood pulp and paper industry, destined almost entirely to meet the increasing demands of the neighboring United States, that of dairy products, widespread especially in the east, of canned food (also British Columbia), of grinding, tobacco, etc. Textiles, enormously developed in recent years, are still not enough for domestic consumption: nevertheless cotton mills have almost doubled the number of spindles from 1913 to the present day (1.6 million in 1928). The metallurgical industries follow in importance, which include grandiose plants (high furnaces and steel mills), especially in the eastern provinces: the country’s three largest centers are Sydney in Nova Scotia, Hamilton in Ontario and Sault Sainte-Marie on Lake Superior. Among the products, agricultural machinery, railway equipment and automobiles are of particular importance, the use of which is destined to assume proportions in the country similar to those of the neighboring United States. Finally, the chemical and electrical industries deserve to be mentioned, which mark real records in the speed of development: it is interesting to note that 95% of the energy production is due to water plants, controlled by about fifteen companies, which supply 88% of the total produced in Canada. The following table summarizes Canadian industry data for 1926.

Canada Minerals