Lake Jeannine () is a small lake in the
Côte-Nord
Côte-Nord (Region 09) (, ; ) is an List of regions of Quebec, administrative region of Quebec, on the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, Canada.
The region runs along the St. Lawrence River and then the Gulf of St. Lawrence, ...
region of Quebec, Canada. It was the site of a major iron ore mining operation in the 1960s and 1970s.
Location
Lac Jeannine is in the unorganized territory of
Rivière-Mouchalagane, Caniapiscau, Quebec.
It is just east of
Quebec Route 389
Quebec's Route 389 connects Quebec Route 138, Route 138 adjacent to Baie-Comeau with the Newfoundland and Labrador border, connecting with the Trans-Labrador Highway (Newfoundland and Labrador provincial route 500) to Wabush and Labrador City, an ...
.
Lac Jeannine is from
Gagnon, which was closed in 1985 and is now a ghost town.
The lake is long and wide.
A watercourse drains the lake through the mine dumps and a series of small lakes before running into the
Manicouagan Reservoir
Manicouagan Reservoir (also Lake Manicouagan ; ) is an annular lake in central Quebec, Canada, covering an area of . The lake island in its centre is known as René-Levasseur Island, and its highest point is Mount Babel. The structure was c ...
.
The lake's name seems to have been given by a prospector for the
Québec Cartier Mining Company
Québec Cartier Mining Company was one of the leading producers of iron ore products in North America, now part of ArcelorMittal.
The company was founded in the late 1950s by multiple Canadian and American investors, based in Quebec, Canada, led ...
who was part of the team that discovered the rich deposit of iron ore in 1957.
Mining operation
The mining operation has its origin on 26 January 1957 when the Québec Cartier Mining Company was created by
U.S. Steel
The United States Steel Corporation is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and Central Europe.
The company produces and sells steel products, ...
to supply iron ore concentrate.
The mine, the town to support 4,000 people, the
Hart-Jaune power station and the railway linking the mine to
Port-Cartier
Port-Cartier () is a city in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at the mouth of the Aux-Rochers River, southwest of Sept-Îles, Quebec.
Port-Cartier had a population of 6,516 at ...
were built between 1958 and 1961.
The cost was $325 million. The first load of iron ore concentrate was shipped in June 1961. From then until 1976 the mine employed more than 1,000 workers.The ore processing plant at Lac Jeannine had 12 identical processing lines. The first stage was
autogenous grinding, and then the ore was separated using a gravimetric circuit with spiral classifiers. The ore from the circuit was filtered, and then shipped by rail to Port-Cartier.
The deposit was long, wide and deep.
It yielded over 266 million tons with an average concentration of 33%.
The iron mine was in production from 1961 to 1976.
The company made further investments in the 1970s at
Mont-Wright,
Fermont
Fermont (; ) is a mining city in Côte-Nord region, Quebec, Canada, near the Quebec-Labrador border about from Labrador City on Route 389, which connects to the Trans-Labrador Highway (Newfoundland and Labrador Route 500). It is the seat o ...
and
Fire Lake, but during a steel market crisis was forced to shut down Lac-Jeannine.
The mill at Lac Jeannine continued to treat iron ore from Fire Lake until 1985.
That year the mill and the town of Gagnon were closed.
The accessible part of the tailings, about 127 million tons in a sub-aerial pile, cover about .
They are just under 10% iron.
Another 26 million tons were deposited in the open pit mine, which has since flooded.
In February 2007 it was announced that Quinto Mining of British Columbia had acquired an option of the iron tailings at the former mine.
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeannine, Lac
Lakes of Côte-Nord