MINERAL REGIONALISM OF THE CANADIAN SHIELD

ABSTRACT. Exploitation of minerals on the Canadian Shield has progressed rapidly in the twentieth century with mineral output expanding from less than$15,000,000 annually at the turn of the century to over$800,000,000 in 1956. For more than a half century areas dominated by a mineral economy have increased in number. Consequently there are some mineral regions on the Canadian Shield that are in an initial stage of exploitation while other areas are declining due to mineral exhaustion. Mining regions change through time just as do other regions. The mineral region of the Canadian Shield normally begins as a single node of mining activity. If new centers of mining develop around the original node a dispersed mineral region forms in which there is considerable open space. With the development of a closer knit pattern of mining activities a uniform mining region evolves. Each of these regional types has characteristic features and problems of development. It is the purpose of this paper to describe and analyse the characteristics of the different stages in mineral regionalism of the Canadian Shield. Such aspects are investigated as production and reserve trends, localization of the processing facilities, problems of establishing a mining economy in a subarctic environment, similarities and contrasts of the mining landscape in different stages of exploitation, population patterns and contrasts in the composition of population between mining and non-mining communities, and the interplay of the mining processes with other elements of the economy. Because there are many regions dominated by minerals in different stages of development, the Canadian Shield presents an ideal area for the study of mineral regionalism. RESUME. Le bouclier canadien a connu une telle expansion economique que sa production miniere annuelle a passe de 815,000,000 pres au tournant du siecle, a plus de$800,000,000 era 1956. Depuis plus d'un demi-siecle les regions minieres ont augmente en nombre; plusieurs en sont qu'au stade initial de leur exploitation, tandis que d'autres entrevoient deja l'epuisement prochain de leurs ressources. La region miniere du bouclier a a son origine qu'un seul noyeau d'activite autour duquel, separ-pillent parjois d'autres agglomerations minieres. l'evolution de la region amene eventuellement un resserement de son activite et une plus grande uniformite regionale. Le but de cet article est de decrire et d'ana-lyser les caracteristiques du regionalisme minier dans le bouclier canadien. Ainsi, les divers courants de la production et des reserves, les emplacements des usines metallurgiques, l'adap-tation de l'economie miniere aux exigences subarctiques, les similarites et contrastes du paysage minier dans ses divers stades d'exploi-tation, la repartition et la composition de la population, et finalement, la relation entre l'exploitation miniere d'une part et les elements de l'economie environnante de l'autre, voila autant d'aspects qui meritent d'etre examines. Parce que l'industrie miniere s'avere d'une tres grande importance dans tout developpement de caractere regional, le bouclier canadien est l'endroit ideal pour toute etude sur ce sujet.