a Why not a steel industry | on the Pacific Coast? Stop the plunder of BCs mineral resources: By MAURICE RUSH Associate Editor, Pacific Tribune "T"HE wholesale misuse and plunder of British Colum- bia’s resources is a criminal. disgrace. This’ plunder is now Moving ahead at a gallop. Al- ready more than 1,200 mines have been worked out and more are being added each year. The holes left in the ground and on mountain sides are a grim re- minder of the great wealth Which was once in these work- ed-out mines. The province’s vast mineral resources are being mined today by U.S. and Japanese companies On a scale never seen before. Our ores.are being dug up and shipped in raw form to Japan and the U.S. for processing. Both the federal Liberal govern- ment and the Socred government in Victoria have removed most restrictions on foreign compa- nies to make possible the whole- sale depletion of our mineral re- sources, The ‘people of B.C., who are Supposed to be the owners of these resources, have been re- duced to mere “diggers of ore” to satisfy the huge appetites of foreign monopolies. These re- SOurces, if properly processed and- used’ to build up B.C.’s Manufacturing industry, .could be a source of vast growth. New industries and tens of thous- ands of new jobs could be creat- ed for our growing labor force. The sellout of our mineral resources has become so dis- 8raceful that it prompted one of Canada’s leading mining engin- €ers, Charles M. Campbell Sr. to write recently in an article tiled: “Minerals — A Sacred Trust in Perit’: “The childish but persisteit Slatement_ that our North can Supply the world’s mineral Needs is to be challenged .. . ake no mistake, we must cease looting our mineral wealth. “We dig it up, export it, and boast about record ‘production.’ The correct word:is ‘depletion.’ We must get all possible from this ore. Instead, we welcome all interested to come and help themselves. Our return is the minimum and it is ‘dissipation’ that rules.” Campbell warned that we are exporting our heritage and that we must ceas2 the looting of our mineral wealth or we may forever reap the curses of fu- ture generations. x * * Here are some facts about the wholesale sellout of our min- eral resources: e All of B.C.’s iron ore pro- duction—about two million tons annually—is exported to Japan. Most of it is mined in B.C. by -American companies, some in conjunction with Japanese cap- ital. e All of B.C.’s copper ore pro- duction—64,000 tons of copper when refined—is exported to Japan and Tacoma, Wash. _ @ American and Japanese fin- ancial groups have spent mil- lions of dollars developing huge iron ore reserves in the Queen Charlotte Islands which are esti- mated to hold 40. million tons of iron ore. Present plans are to export 850,000 tons of iron concentrates a year from this operation to Japan. The fabulous Pine Point Mine in the Mackenzie region is an example of what is happening today. The Canadian government opened up the area by spending $86 million to build a railway at the public’s expense for Com- inco to carry on its mining op- erations. — The agreement was that Com- inco would mine 1,500,000 tons and produce concentrates at Trail. Now authority has been given to export an additional 1,500,000 tons to Japan and the U.S, The estimated reserves at Pine Point are 21.5 million tons. Mined at the rate of 3 million tons annually, mostly for ex- port, the mine will be exhausted in seven years. Undoubtedly, many empty holes will be left in the ground at Pine Point to remind us of the folly of the present policy. Other companies operating on the Pacific Coast, which are de- pleting our minerals for export and adding to the number of empty holes in the ground, are Falconbridge, Noranda, Granby, Britannia, Giant Mascot,’ Em- pire, Nimpkish, Texada, Bethle- hem and Craigmont. Texada Island offers a glaring example of what is happening to our mineral resources. Locat- ed some 75 miles from Vancou- ver, Texada wads known to hold huge iron ore deposits suitable for steel processing. Since 1952 the U.S.-owned Texada Mines Ltd., has been tearing the Island apart with giant bulldozers and digging deep into the bowels of the earth to extract millions of tons of ore for export to Japan. ‘Two weeks ago a specially built bulk cargo vessel, the 815- foot long MS Texada, built in Japan, loaded 68,000 long tons for export to Japanese steel mills. This ‘U.S. company now has.contracts with Japanese steel firms to export 450,000 tons of concentrates a year for the next 10 years. In order to speed- up production they have in- stalled bulk loaders able to load 3,000 tons an hour. Pacific Coast shipyard work- ers have a particularly bitter pill to swallow when they see a huge cargo vessel built in Japan, most likely from steel made from B.C. iron ore, haul away mountains. of ore to smelt into steel in Japan which Can- ada must buy back for its ship- building industry at highly in- flated prices. The logical question they are bound to ask is: Why not a steel industry on the Pacific Coast? Why not produce our own steel in B.C.? Indeed, why not? The argu- ment used for many years by those who opposed a steel in- dustry, that our ore is unsuit- able, is now proven to be false. If Japan can make steel from B.C. iron ore, why not B.C.? It has been estimated by some experts that if B.C. retain- ed two thirds of its present iron ore exports to Japan it could supply a steel mill which would produce 600,000 tons of steel annually and employ over 2,000 people. These experts point out that if this appears too ambi- tious at the moment, they offer another alternative. The 40 million ‘tons of iron ore in the Queen Charlottes alone, they point out, could, even if the ore is low grade, supply. a 200,000-ton steel mill employing about 700 people for the next 80 years. The building. of a steel in- dustry in B.C. would not only create many new jobs, but would also bring much wealth to the province and create a whole chain of secondary in- dustries based on steel. And, if combined with the processing of other raw materials, B.C. could become one of the great indus- trial areas of North America. The alternative to this is to continue to deplete our mineral resources, which cannot be re- newed, until our wealth is used up for the gain of others. That’s what we are doing now.