Date Published:
January 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Noranda Mines

Noranda Mines, a company owning and operating the Horne mine, a copper­gold property, and a customs concentrator and smelter, at Noranda, Quebec.

The name is formed by a combination of North and Canada. In February, 1922, a syndicate, of which the moving spirits were S. C. Thompson and H. W. Chadbourne, optioned the claims of two prospectors named E. H. Horne and E. J. Miller on the shores of lake Osisko. In May, 1922, was incorporated Noranda Mines, Ltd., with James Y.

Murdoch as president, which took over the Horne claim and a number of other properties acquired by the syndicate. The success of the company's operations really dated from August, 1923, when diamond-drilling followed by underground work revealed great wealth of ore. In addition to the Horne mine, including the smelter and plant, the company owns claims in the Porcupine area and at Red lake, Ontario. The company produces blister copper, containing precious metals, which is refined by the Canadian Copper Refiners, Ltd., at Montreal East, Quebec, into electrolytic copper. While the mine is primarily

a copper producer, the value of its gold production can be adjusted owing to the flexibility of its ore bodies. See History of Noranda Mines, Limited (Empire Mining and Metallurgical Congress, 1927), Annual Financial Review, Canadian, July, 1934; Canadian Mining

Journal, April, 1934; Financial Post Survey of Mines, Canada and Newfoundland, 1933; Gold, April, 1934; B. F. Townsley, Mine Finders (Toronto, 1935).

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. V, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 401p., p. 12.