TIMMINS -- He's a member of parliament, a musician and an author. Timmins-James Bay MP (NDP) Charlie Angus has written a new book--his eighth--and this time, it's focussed on the town of Cobalt which he calls 'the cradle of Canada's mining industry.'
It's not out yet, but he said he's already signed a deal with a national publisher.
"We're going to see this town play I think and an important role. (Cobalt) is a mineral that should not be the blood mineral and a mineral of such toxic environmental damage but a mineral that could actually lead us to a better and cleaner digital future," said Angus.
His book is timely since First Cobalt Refinery, an idle facility bordering the town, has announced a recommissioning.
In August, mayors in the area told CTV News they were looking forward to what the refinery restart could mean.
"We lose enough young people in the North going south and hopefully we can retain some here with this kind of industry starting up," George Othmer, the mayor of Cobalt.
With this anticipated boom, Angus said it's a good time for people to reconnect with history.
Angus told CTV News he's been working on his new book for a long time. He said the working title is; ' Cobalt, the Metal and the Town that Launched a Mining Empire' and he said it's not some pretty history story.
"I think people are going to find this place was a lot wilder, it was a lot darker; this is not the Canadian history you learn in school about all the little settlers who came to live happily ever after. This was a wide open, and at times very dangerous place, but what was built here was the model for Canada's worldwide dominance for-- better and sometimes for worse-- in the mining industry around the world."
The book, which Angus says will hit shelves next year, also looks at how the Indigenous history of mining in Canada has been largely overlooked and that it goes back at least two thousand years when silver and other metals were traded from the area.
