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LITTLE NARROWS, N.S. — Paul MacNeil fondly remembers his days working at the gypsum quarry in Little Narrows.
“I worked there for 23 years, in all aspects of the mine,” MacNeil said. “It was close to home; a good-paying job for the area; all the employees they had were great. The company was a good one to work for — certainly good for the community.”
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MacNeil, now the District 1 councillor for Victoria County who represents the Little Narrows area, joined county Deputy Mayor Larry Dauphinee, Inverness MLA and provincial Finance Minister Allan MacMaster and Chris Griffin, chief executive of United States Gypsum (USG) Corp., in a Tuesday announcement of a $104-million investment over three years to relaunch the shuttered Little Narrows gypsum quarry.
“It’s great to see one of Victoria County’s largest employers back in business,” said MacNeil, adding that he remembers at one point there were between 140 and 150 people working at the quarry during his tenure.
Canadian Gypsum Company (CGC) Inc., a subsidiary of USG Corp. and owners of the Little Narrows facility, will be making the investment to revitalize and relaunch a state-of-the-art gypsum quarry on the current mine footprint, part of efforts to reinforce its supply of raw gypsum material to meet a demand for wallboard products, said Griffin.
MORE THAN 100 JOBS
Once the mine becomes fully operational, Griffin said the quarry will support more than 100 long-term, mining jobs, such as heavy equipment operators, lab technicians and engineers.
“The revitalization phase itself will also generate significant economic benefits and spinoffs, through supply and service contracts through local vendors,” Griffin told a small group of businesspeople, municipal and provincial politicians and some former mining staff.
The project will also include the construction of a new dock and shiploader, new crusher and conveyor systems, and new mining equipment, such as drills, loaders, excavators and haul trucks.
IN PRODUCTION SINCE 1935
CGC — considered a leading marketer, manufacturer and distributor of gypsum wallboard products — acquired the quarry in 1954 from the former Victoria Gypsum Co. which began gypsum production in Little Narrows back in 1935. By 1987, more than 21.4 million tonnes of gypsum and 1.4 million of anhydrite were being produced at the quarry, according to a former provincial mines and energy department report from 1988. By 2015, net sales coming out of the operation were around $6 million.
The 2008 recession began to affect the mine’s production and ultimately led to the facility shuttering operations in 2016.
“It was on life support from 2010 to 2016,” Griffin said. “Before the recession, from this location in Little Narrows, we were shipping three million tons of rock up and down the Eastern seaboard. And that came to a halt during the recession. We owned two of our own self-unloading, 40,000-ton ships that were idled. So that made it a very difficult decision to come here (then) to idle this quarry.”
GROWING HOUSING MARKET
Griffin said what prompted the idea to reopen the mine stemmed from a growing housing market across North America, “and 50 per cent of all the products we make with gypsum go directly into new residential construction,” he said.
He added that synthetic gypsum, “which we pioneered 50 years ago, was a byproduct of burning coal, is slowly going away, as more and more states are replacing that with natural gas. As synthetic gypsum is declining, demand for wallboard is increasing, which means we need more natural rock.”
PRODUCING UP TO TWO MILLION TONNES
The quarry has traditionally shipped the product down the Eastern Seaboard from its location near the shore of the Bras d’Or Lake, and plans for the mine’s reopening, expected in 2026, will continue to follow that trend, said Griffin. He added the revitalized Little Narrows quarry will produce up to two million tonnes of raw gypsum material per year, and the material will be shipped by boat to CGC and USG manufacturing locations along North America’s eastern seaboard, including Montreal.
“Our goal is to try and have somewhere between 50 and 100 years’ worth of rock for all of our plants. This (quarry) will service at least five of our facilities between Montreal and Jacksonville, Fla.,” he said.
Griffin said with ordering new equipment, fixing up infrastructure, putting in a new conveyer belt operation and more, he estimated it will likely take about three years to get the operation back up and running.
He added that on the job front, CGC will be not only looking at new hires but also former quarry employees.
ROADWAY IN NEED OF REPAIRS
One other upgrading need will be the roadway leading to the quarry and its operations. A current drive along that portion of Little Narrows Road, which also leads to the communities of Washabuck and South Cove, will need potholes fixed up and any current road dips corrected.
MacMaster, appearing on behalf of Victoria-The Lakes MLA and House Speaker Keith Bain, said for workers who do take one of 100 or so jobs up on offer, “we’ve been increasing the road budgets the last couple of years. If there is trucking or supplies being brought in, we want to make sure the roads are in good condition. So we’re investing more money into our roads.”
PEOPLE MADE A DIFFERENCE
Byron MacMillian, a former mine manager who first started working at the quarry as a part-timer in 1979, said Tuesday’s announcement will hopefully spawn a new generation of workers that will dedicate themselves to making the operation as enjoyable as he felt during his tenure.
“We were maxing out 1.5 million tons of gypsum at that time,” he said. “It’s the people here that made a difference for me.”
SUPPLYING MATERIALS
Before he entered the political world, Derek Mombourquette recalled his days as an industrial distributor in the community who delivered products to the quarry.
“I was one of the vendors who brought over many of the supplies that were needed to mine gypsum,” the Sydney-Membertou MLA said. “For a guy starting out in business and in sales, me spending five years doing this, these guys at CGC were great to work with.”
– Ian Nathanson is a mutlimedia journalist with the Cape Breton Post. Follow him on Twitter @CBPost_Ian.
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