SUDBURY -- After more than 100 years of operation, Vale’s Stobie Mine site on Frood Road in Sudbury is being demolished.

Over the next few months the iconic headframes and buildings will be torn down. But Vale staff said Tuesday the mine will not be forgotten.

“This mine carries with them a legacy,” said Patrick Boitumelo, head of mining and milling for Vale's North Atlantic operations. “A legacy that we are all going to cherish for a very, very long time.”

The complete project will be done in the middle of December and cost nearly $800,000.

Operations at the mine have been stopped since 2017 ever since operations were placed on care and maintenance. Although it is an expensive project, keeping the mine standing is pricey, as well.

“The cost associated with maintaining and keeping it on care and maintenance, we don’t want to manage that, and we want to reduce the cost,” said Boitumelo.

New development

“The other reason is that this will pave way for a development that we are currently working on.”

Vale did not give details Tuesday about what will be built at the site.

Although the Stobie Mine will no longer exist, Vale said mining jobs are still very popular in northern Ontario.

“Timmins, Red Lake, they’re very dependent on the mining industry for employment for everything else,” said Charles Dumaresq, lof Mining Association of Canada.

“The number of people actually working in Sudbury has dropped over the years, but it’s still a very significant part of Sudbury’s total work force … A lot of companies that are in Sudbury provide many services to the mining industry in Sudbury and beyond.”

A crew of six Vale staff and 12 contractors will complete the tear down and Vale said residents in Sudbury should not be affected or inconvenienced by the project.

With only a few months until the project is complete, Dumaresq said there is definitely some important history to the Stobie mine.

“Stobie becomes one part of that much broader story of the work that Vale, previously Inco did, Glencore, previously Falconbridge, had done in there for decades in nickel and copper mining in the area.”

Correction:

The name of the Mining Association of Canada has been corrected after being called Canadian Mining Association.