THUNDER BAY — Hundreds of residents celebrated the 10th anniversary of Mining Day in Thunder Bay at Marina Park on Saturday.
The festival aimed to educate the public about what is done in the mining industry, as well as teach children more about the science behind mining and the types of careers available.
“It’s a really great opportunity for us to come out and see what mining is all about,” said Marc Tennier, who visited the festival with his son Logan.
“Mining is very big in this region and then Logan here, we like to take him out and see what it’s all about, see what’s going on.”
Tennier said all the vendors were super nice and it was always nice to see what exactly the individual people do in their job roles.
“We talked to some engineers. There are all these big trucks behind us that are really cool to see. Lots of variety of things too. More things that I’ve ever really associated with mining, all the engineering behind it and everything that goes along with it. It’s really exciting to see,” said Tennier.
Logan also added that he enjoyed the metal detector activity the most, which involved finding metal objects to earn a prize.
“I would become a miner,” said Logan, who found mining “very fun.”
For Pam Coles, the Mining Day chair, educating the public about the industry includes not only geology and rocks, but also everything from how mines are created, how they are found, how materials are extracted and all the environmental aspects that come along with it.
“It’s really important, I think, just for people to understand what we do in mining. It takes a lot of work and it’s not just finding the mine and getting it out. There’s a whole lot of stuff that comes before it,” said Coles.
“There’s a lot of planning. There’s engineering. There’s environmental work that has to be done. There’s reclamation. There’s heavy equipment. There’s drilling. There are so many moving parts.”
They want people to know a little bit more about it, she said, and also get young kids interested in it because there will be a lot of career openings in the future.
“For the high school students to come down and talk to these people and see what kind of jobs they can potentially get in the future,” said Coles.
Coles added that Mining Day has also been steadily growing every year.
Themed around amethyst, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of amethyst being named Ontario’s mineral emblem, the event had purple Persians, purple balloons and a big birthday cake for visitors.
It also featured roughly 65 exhibits and games set up in miner and prospector tents, with the support of about 50 sponsors.
“It takes a lot of work to really set up something like this,” said Coles.
Some of the family-friendly activities included gold panning, mining for amethyst, simulators such as an excavator simulator, electric bikes, heavy equipment to explore, metal detecting and a spin-the-wheel-to-win-prize game.
“Our grand prize this year is a boat trip over the Silver Islet mine shaft and onto the lighthouse on Porphyry Island,” said Coles.
“You get a gift certificate for a bar for a picnic and some gas cards and stuff and also a ton of other prizes. We have a trampoline that we’re giving away. Lots of cool stuff.”
As a flagship fundraiser for Women in Mining’s scholarship, which gave away seven $3000 scholarships last year, she said they also had a scholarship barbecue.
However, to accomplish all of this, Coles said they really needed support from the industry.
This year, Mining Day had three top-level sponsors: Dougall Media, Kinross’ Great Bear Resources and Hydro One.
"They were really instrumental in helping us put this together,” said Coles.
