SCHREIBER, ON — Residents of the Township of Schreiber are watching with more than passing interest as an Australian-based company examines the potential for resuming production at the former Inmet zinc mine at Winston Lake.
Superior Lake Resources is exploring the area, about 20 kilometres northwest of Schreiber.
Two deposits were mined there for over a decade, with operations ceasing in 1998 due to falling zinc prices. The price is significantly higher today.
On its website, SLR says that despite the lengthy shutdown, key infrastructure such as power, rail and road network, and access to two zinc smelters are all still "in good shape."
Although the mine site is outside the township boundary, Schreiber CAO Don McArthur says town officials have met with an SLR representative on a couple of occasions.
"They've just been keeping us abreast of the project...the township, obviously, is willing and eager to help in any way they can to see a successful mine in the area," McArthur said.
A company official was unavailable for comment, but according to McArthur it plans to conduct some test drilling this fall.
The CAO recalled the importance of the Inmet operation to the economy of the Schreiber-Terrace Bay area in the 1990s.
McArthur described the mine's shutdown as "an economic watershed kind of point, where the challenges of the town became that much greater."
He said the CPR remains Schreiber's biggest employer, but even the railway has downsized over the years, and in recent decades has employed far fewer local residents than it did in the 1950s.
"The [Inmet] mine, when it operated, took up a lot of that slack, keeping our schools fuller and our businesses more energetic...I would think we would see a similar type thing if it were to reopen."
Area residents, McCarthur said, have "a level of optimism" about the prospects for that, but their hopes are tempered with "a fair bit of realism."
He said the community understands that mining is a challenging business, and requires much more than a good ore deposit to get a mine into production.
