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A collection of photographs of the early exploration exhibitions in the asbestos mountains area.

This file contains photograph from early construction of Cassiar Mine and townsite. Photographs were stapled to inter-office correspondence paper and sent with pages of photo descriptions. Photographs have been removed and rehoused, maintaining original order.

An assortment of photographs speculated to have been used for research purposes as Cassiar administration established the mine and the town.

Photographs depict aerial views of the Cassiar townsite, plantsite, tailings pile, mine road, bench and pit mine, mine buildings (tramline loading station, crusher, shop, and garage), and surrounding mountain range. Here "aerial" refers to photos depicting a large area and taken from the air or from a high point of elevation.

Photographic slides of map of Canada depicting different geology and geography interests such as: mines and reserves, physiographic regions, soil regions, permafrost limits, underdeveloped hydro potential and development corridor.

File contains photographs featuring members of the Board of Directors of Cassiar Asbestos Corporation Ltd., which was formed on the 17th of May, 1951. Cassiar's forerunner was a company named Conwest, formed in 1534, a consolidation of two companies owned by Fred Martin Connell and his brother W. Harold Connell. The first board of directors included the Connell brothers, George Armstrong, John E. Kennedy, Charles & Arthur Mortimer, and Charles Rainforth Elliot (chartered accountant and secretary-treasurer of Conwest & Cassiar). Directors depicted in this file include F.M Connell, Harold Connell, Charles Elliot, John E. Kennedy, George Armstrong, Ken A. Creery, John Drybrough, Tam Zimmermann, George Washington Smith (president of Bell Asbestos Mines), Nick Gritzuk, Jack Christian (general manager, president, and CEO). Other individuals depicted include Fred Murry, Andre Beguin, Plato Malozemoff from Newmont Mining (co-founder of Cassiar with F.M. Connell), Alfred Lloyd Penhale (founder and CEO of Asbestos Corporation of Canada Ltd.), C.B. Brown, Pierre Marcotte, Francis Parker Smith (brother of George Smith), Bill Oughtred, Bill Johnson, and a Mr. Janitsch. File also includes a portrait of an unidentified director of Cassiar from Turner and Newall in England, taken at the corporate club in Toronto. Group portraits were taken at the Cassiar Valley, the office building, "House 130," fishing outings, and at formal events in unidentified locations.

A collection of 10 photographs of documented exploration in the early 1950s in and around the Cassiar area. Noted locations are Quartz Creek, Mocassin Mines, Blue River Bridge and the Alaska Highway.

Photographs of piping manufacturing in Perth, Australia. Collection depicts feed and control gates, single beater, pulling mandrel, pipe machine, and fibre cement (machine).

A collection of photographs from the site that Cassiar was being built in the early 50s. Photos depict lumber piles, early camp area, the first buildings, mountains, and the creek.
Along with this collection there are a set of images also from the early Cassiar site mainly depicting a dirt road and various individuals and machinery along it.

• File contains photographs done to item level description, depicting miscellaneous people and locations at or around Cassiar, B.C. This includes a photograph of renowned prospector William (“Bill”) Storie, Bill Pratt with a fox, a community gathering in a someone's home, and a hockey game.
• Also included but not to item level is a photo of "David Madore" as part of his application to Cassiar, photo of "William Field" a local hire maintenance mechanic, and photos of a RNWMP Post sign (Royal North West Mounted Police) that depicts annotations "Indian grave" , "Miners Cabin" , "Road House" , "Customs House" , "St. James Church" , "Swansons Store" etc., and 15 negatives of various individuals at what appears to be someone's home.
• Also included is cabin at Boya Lake, which used to be named Chain lake, located off the Stewart-Cassiar highway. This land of this cabin may have been involved legal issues , which was related to people at Cassiar.

This file contains photographs of the construction of the dry rock storage building in 1953. The two photographs included in this collection depict the trusses of the building during construction.

File contains photographs featuring the tramline at Cassiar which ran from the crushing plant at the mountain mine to the plantsite in the valley (a drop of 427 meters). The first ore was originally transported by truck to the plant until the gravity chute was built in 1953. This chute was replaced with the first aerial tramline model in 1956, which was succeeded by the second model in 1975. This file also includes one photo of the original gravity chute, and one photo depicting a tramline worker.

Additionally there is a collection of eighteen photographs of tramline cars that were being surveyed for damage and condition, and another collection of six photographs of tramline study. The results of this study determined that there was variances in load sizes of the buckets caused by extra material falling off the panfeeder.

File contains photographs depicting an award night that took place in the late 1950s or early 1960s in the old panabode Recreation Centre at Cassiar B.C.. Photos feature groups of people posed with trophies, a family posed together, a large group on stage, the audience, and musicians including individuals with a trumpet, saxophone, guitar and violin. Fred Murray (early Cassiar staff member) is featured in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th photograph.

This is a collection of photographs from a Trip Report to Eureka Asbestos Cement Plant in Mexico by A.C. Beguin, General Superintendent, in 1958. It was primarily a "contact" visit by Cassiar Co. to the Mexican plant as they were new customers.

The photographs depict various in and around the plant, including: suburbs around plant, entrance to plant, Mexican people making "tortilla," discussions with General Manager Sr. Batis and plant engineer Sr. Gomez, Cassiar fibre reading for blending, weighing and batching area, sludge tank, pipe machine , pipe storage, hammer mill, dust tube filter, sheets going through sizing, shipments, construction of a water storage tank, workmen at work, tank area, loading trucks, testing machine, and final percentages of fibre in products.

File contains photographs depicting superintendents accepting safety awards on behalf of Cassiar Asbestos Corporation ltd, and BCIT Scholarship Winners.

Photograph collection of various foothills around Cassiar.

Photograph of Cassiar's Chief Geologist Bill Plumb who led many exhibitions for the purposes of Cassiar's outside exploration endeavors. Various photos in this collection depict Bill on some of these exhibitions.

Collection of photographs of the construction of the crushing plant and related services at Cassiar in 1963. The work was contracted out to V.B. Humphrey Construction Ltd based out of North Vancouver. The photographs depict the foundation, installation of machinery, erection of steel frame building, and conveyor system. D.G Garret Foreman was in charge of the project.

Photograph collection of early mill construction. Various annotations note retaining ribs, pouring ribs, pouring retaining walls, the west wall, steel work, transformer house, and furnace pad.

A collection of aerial photos of the Clinton Creek area.

Included is a flight index for 68 aerial photographs. Map depicts Clinton Creek area, identifying airfield and mine.

This collection is of Kutcho Creek Camp that was set up by a crew led by Cassiar's Chief Geologist Bill Plumb in 1966.

There are six photographs showing the temporary buildings, paths and barrels. These photos were taken from a high hill looking down at the camp. Two photographs depicts the valley of Kutcho Creek area, and the exploration camp is in the distance at foot of hill. One photograph depicts valley of Kutcho Creek area with a body of water in foreground, and mountains in background.
Another photograph depicts man believed to be Matt Bell standing in Kutcho Creek exploration camp. There are tents on either side, a wood structure in background and a sign on wood post: "PLUMB BLVD."
One photograph believed to have been taken near Kutcho Creek, during the initial exploration trip led by Cassiar's Chief Geologist Bill Plumb. Bill stands to left of man believed to be Matt Bell in right foreground. Bulldozer works along talus slope in left foreground.
Another photograph of this initial trip shows a bulldozer working along talus slope in centre of image.

File contains photographs depicting four different tours that took place at the mine, plant, and towns owned by Cassiar Asbestos Corporation Ltd. Tours include Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's visit to Clinton Creek in 1968 and Member of Parliament Iona Campagnolo's visit to Cassiar in 1978. Photographs also depict a party of ambassadors touring Cassiar in 1970, and the dedication of a building in the Cassiar plant in the late 1970s.

This collection is of the pipe line for the New Steam Plant contracted out to Humphrey Construction. The photographs depict the outdoor work of laying the pipe in dug in ground. The file that these photographs were found in contains a contract with Humphrey Construction, specifications for construction and correspondence.

Photos of rocky ridge and hill of potential Asbestos project.

Photographs of miniature models for new mill.

Photographs are of potential mill renovations. Most photographs are annotated to describe the upcoming renovations.

File contains images relating to Incident & Accident Investigations and Occurrences. The photographs are grouped into sets relating to separate incidents.

File contains photographs related primarily to the following subject areas: personnel vehicle accidents, mine vehicle accidents, workplace accidents, fires, and rock falls in the pit mine.

Identified objects include Euclid ore hauling trucks, Wabco ore haulage trucks, drill rigs, derailed train car, Clark forklift, dump trucks, twisted steel girder, and cat machine.

Locations identified include the townsite, mill building, pit mine, tramline, railroad, the powerhouse, the plantsite, and the underground mine.

The following is abbreviated description of the incidents documented in this file:

• Photos and negatives of a rock slide in the pit mine, a flooding creek, a house severely damaged by fire, a parking lot in Cassiar, and what are speculated to be oil drums.
• Various of Finning Tractor and equipment damage incidents, one occurred on 2 July 1981 because of HOS blade, another in Nov, 1987, and another in Oct. 1986. Also Euclid accidents, of which one occurred 29 May 1987
• Photos of split fibre bags in snow, a damaged brown car in Cassiar parking lot, various Blast Hole Drill accidents, of which one occurred in pit in September 1985, and another planned blast that failed to detonate - powergel 'A' slurry failure on 10 June 1985.
• a derailed train, and a young woman measuring damaged steel trellis.
• Photos of Drill #707 fallen over in bank, a broken haulage truck, a fire damaged truck, and of Drill and Wzbco accident, #650 Haulage Truck accident on Oct. 24, 1990, and another accident near gas pump area involving truck on 5 Feb. 1987.
• Photos of damaged tramline after avalanche with annotated envelope "Bill Zemenchick", a set of photos showing tramline trackrope incident in 1986, and a derailed tramline carts in discharge area on 6 October 1986.
• Photos of Pressure Packer Accumulator Failure from the Plantsite in 1986, incident neraby Fibre Storage building involving #872 Forklift during 80s, another incident involving the #489 Hydraulic Shovel in the Mine during 80s.
• Photos of broken windshield and overloaded bucket on 30 April 1985, a screw gun malfunction caused by outlet having 600v power source in 1985, incident caused injury.
• Photos of "G" conveyor accident in April 1988, equipment damage in Underground mine in 1990, damaged screens in Mill, malfunctioning blade incident 11 Jan. 1992.
• Photos of Cat Engine cracking, damaged garbage truck, Haulage Truck engine failure on 27 Oct. 1986, Truck #84 backed into trench on 17 Oct. 1990, a loader that caught fire 21 June 1989, a grader accident on 21 Nov. 1985, and Haul track #59 broken tie rod that caused significant equipment damage.
• Photos of a fuel oil spill on 11 June 1990 in the Cassiar valley around plantsite.
• Photos of ground failure in Cassiar open pit 22 June 1988, 5 May 1987, and 2 Sept. 1987.
• Photos of damaged tires and damaged cart, a panfeeder accident in trench, shovel accidents on 6 March 1986 and 15 November 1986, Cylinder rod accident on 7 March 1986, manhole incident 9 April 1984, snow damage to building 29 March 1982, another loader engine fire on 3 Sept. 1987, and a broken tail light on 6 April 1988.
• Photos of accident in Underground mine when drilling piece of shotcrete fell on 20 June 1991, incident of disconnecting sling from chute causing damage on 4 July 1990, and accident in open pit of machinery going off road on 14 January 1988.
• Photos of Mine Garage Parts-room fire collection; 18 January 1986, also included are two photographs of a Euclid truck - kept with collection of context. Truck could have been used to transport debris.
• Important collection of three photographs of scoop tram sabotage incident - "foul play" on 15 June 1990. The Scoop tram was used in the underground mine.

Some of the above accidents involved personnel and therefore access is restricted - See Archivist for accessibility.

Reclamation is the process of recovering disturbed land to its former state or other productive uses. This collection of photographs depicts men at work instituting a project on the control of erosion and to restore the mined areas to a condition in keeping with the environmental standards.

The file contains eight photographs depicting close up images of three rock samples, some photographed with a ruler for scale. One of the rock samples is speculated to be obsidian and the other two are likely serpentine. The images where originally found in an envelope titled "ROCKS" and are likely dated around 1991.

Included in this file are an five photographs of rocks on a shelf, which may be asbestos sample rocks. There are five accompanying negatives to these photographs and are likely dated around 1977. The photographs and negatives were found in an envelope labelled "Negatives - CIMM Photos."

Additionally two negative strips of geology maps of Canada. These negatives were found in an envelope labelled "Negatives - CIMM Papers, Mining, Planning, Geology."

Photographs from Cassiar trip report to R.C. quarry plant in Sweden. This plant utilized rubber type dust enclosures to maintain low dust levels. Labelled Appendix F, this collection includes: landscape photograph of quarry, seal to conveyor gallery, rubber lined truck, rubber seal on equipment, rubber cover screen, and rubber bucket elevator.

Photographs are part of an album depicting the dust conditions in the mill and the measures taken to control the dust.

Photographs from Cassiar trip report to Ditton Works, a pipe division of TAC Construction Materials Ltd. Asbestos pipe was made at this particular factory. The company used some Cassiar fibres in their production. Labelled appendix I, this collection includes: photographs of equipment, bagging, packaging, fibre, pipes, and screens from inside the factory.

Photographs from Cassiar trip to Whitewood and highvale Mines. This collection includes photographs of Rapier Dragline depositing spoil, Erie Dragline, Dragline bucket size, Marion Dragline, coal removal with Bucyrus-Erie coal shovel, Euclid coal hauler, Caterpillar loader removing coal, Euclid hauling coal seam, Highwall and spoil pile, angle of spoil pile, landscape of reclamation mined land, beginning of vegetation, utilization of reclaimed land, water druck and road between spoil piles.

Photograph collection of trip report to Nordenhem Finishing Mill in Germany.

Photographs from Cassiar trip report to Kaiser Resources and Fording Coal near Sparwood, British Columbia. This collection depicts equipment in the field such as a backhoe, shovel loader, trucks, mobile service trailer for shovel maintenance, dragline bucket and exploration tank drill. there are also landscape photographs of the mine area.

Photographs depict different construction projects at separate locations in Cassiar. Photographs were originally housed in envelopes with the following annotations: "POLICE STATION. July 15, 1977."; "Aggregates and Concrete (PERMASTEEL)"; "Fibre Storage and Handling"; "Powerhouse Expansion"; "Sewage Collection Plant."; "Sewage Treatment Plant"; "Single Person Accommodations - Site Work."; "Outside Work - Camp Nos. 1,2,3." Photos generally feature the work sites, supplies, vehicles, machinery, and work in progress at each location.

Additional photographs integrated into file include maintenance project on lining of tubes, lining of aspiration hood, and lining of willow fiberizer. Also five photographs of maintenance in the townsite to fix in ground piping.

This collection of photograph is a Cassiar trip report to Weldotron Inc. Industrial Packaging Systems in Piscataway, New Jersey to look at the shrink wrap system. The ten photographs depict the wrap applicator, bag maker placer, feed side of wrap applicator, shroud wrap machine, and before and after packaged asbestos. One photograph is of the Kellogg Plant in Michigan depicting forklifts. There is also a commercial photograph of the "Weldotron Pallet Pak Shrouder & Shrink Tunnel for shrink wrapping pallet loads."

Photographs from Cassiar trip report to Brenda Mines in British Columbia. These photographs depict pit design, landscape of field and pit, cable stations, mine rescue truck, and equipment such as graders, trucks, drills and cats.

Photographs from Cassiar trip report to Kal Tire Retread Plant at Kamloops, British Columbia. These photographs are of tires that are in the process of being retreaded.

Photographs from Cassiar trip report to Afton Mines in British Columbia. This collection of photographs depicts the road maintenance by cat. and grader, the bench heights, levels, scaling, holes and maintenance, and equipment used such as drills, buckets, trucks, crusher for pit maintenance of walls, slopes and angles.

This collection is proposed Cassiar development for the operating budget in 1979. The photographs are of poster-size presentation information. Topics covered include: operating graph of cost vs. fibre production, productivity rates, waste removal, ore mining cost vs. ton, primary crushing cost vs. ton, ore delivery cost vs. ton transported, stockpile drying and storage cost vs. ton feed, milling cost vs. ton fibre, establishment of funds allocated to townsite, staff, O&T and P&M, three proposed plans for 1979 and the requirements and costs for these proposals.

This is a collection of photographs from Liverpoool UK for the commercial promotion of a barrel. They are professional depictions of all sides and angles of the proposed barrel that Cassiar was exploring to obtain. It can be assumed that this barrel would have been used in the powerhouse as the original file was titled Powerhouse and contained powerhouse records for development.

This file includes two major photographic collections concerning the construction and development of the underground mine at Cassiar, title the McDame Project.

The first collection includes fifteen monthly progress reports documenting the development from July 1988 to December 1989. The progress reports are authored by G. Verret, and were distributed to the executives of Cassiar Asbestos in Vancouver as well officials of the B.C. Government and other creditors of the Corporation. Most images are annotated and dated. Many of the loose photographs are accompanied by an inventory sheet.

Subjects depicted include: the staging area prior to mine development, the initial development of the “Vent Portal”, a jumbo drill working on the mine face, the working face marked for drilling and wired with fuses, a Caterpillar dozer clearing snow after an avalanche, scene of a fire in winter time, complete conveyor sump decline, mining vehicle parked on the “Lay-Down Area” presumably near the portal, the working face of the mine at various stages of development, 1563 portal being slashed, the removal of the overburden for the tramline loading station site, the construction of the transfer tower(s), construction of the stockpile area, the construction of a sedimentation pond, a presumed cave in, construction of footings for the conveyor, construction of the tramline loading terminal station, construction of the crusher building, a slash titled “Breakthrough in Access Ramp”, storage of powder and fuses, a washout in conveyor decline, fog at the portal in -30 degrees Celsius, the 1290 junction flooded, a slab of shotcrete which fell on and injured a miner while shotcreting, shotcrete blasted off walls for repairs, images of the “Hilti-test”, shots showing grade of drift, and structural failures in the 1350 adit.

Locations and structure within the underground mine depicted include: yellow ventilation ducting, ground support including steel screen and shotcrete, steel cables bolted unto ground support, puddles in the adits, the access road to the lay-down area, the exhaust drift, “Fans and Heaters in the 1415 adit”, the 1350 sump, the access ramp to the 1320, the exhaust ramp safety bay, the conveyor decline, the ventilation adit, the 1563 portal, the temporary repair shop at the 1415 portal, junctions of various drifts, the ”Fresh Water Pump & Pumphouse on lower Creek”, the “Ventilation Raise/1563 Platform”, a “Diamond Drill Station” at 6066 North in the underground mine, the “Bridge to the Gravel Pit”, the “Crushing and Screening Plant” in the gravel pit, the ventilation bulkhead in the conveyor decline, and the “Powder Magazine”.

People depicted include Rose Gay and R. Tyne on a tour of the underground mine, a geologist with a rockhammer, a miner identified as A. Jacobs working, contract miners Bruno and Marbel from Canadian Mine Development, and unidentified miners rockbolting, shotcreting, and drilling using jackleg drills.

Vehicle and mining equipment depicted include jeeps, pickup trucks, a front end loader, an unidentified a small unmanned tracked machine with a long arm, scoop trams, a land cruiser, an ore truck with a flat tire, the cone crusher, a “scissor lift”, a mobile shotcrete machine, a new grout pump, a new Boart Jumbo Drill, and a detached bucket half of a 413 ore truck.

The second collection depicts the McDame Project construction in 1986 and 1987.
Content of these photographs includes: various machinery used for excavating and drilling, underground progress of tunneling, supports, wire meshing, rock formations in mine, and exposed asbestos. There are no annotations regarding this photographs.

This collection depicts the construction and development of Roger's Pass Project. Originally part of an album with "Manning - Kumagai" on the front. The photographs depict a railway station, large tent for storage of raw materials, machinery, railway construction equipment, underground tunnel and various people at work in these areas.

This file contains a collection of photographs of Elsa Mine and Venus Mine in the Yukon Territories that were operated by Equipment United Keno Hill, and were subsequently closed after Keno shut down operations in 1989.

It can be assumed that the Cassiar mine was looking at the equipment at Elsa and Venus mine for purchase as the collection depicts various machinery including: shotcrete machine, long hole drill, auger screw, compressed air powered generator, Cat engine, scooptram and slusher from Elsa Mine; and an empty trailer, first aid trailer, compressed air powered tugger, air receivers, cooling system, twist air compressors, and a bit sharpener from Venus Mine.

File contains images depicting the underground mine at Cassiar, showing structural damages, repaired damage ground support, and mining and repair processes.

The file contains a photo inventory entitled “Underground Mine Structural Inspection, Rock Mechanics Dept. Foto Documentation” with a complete file inventory linking the picture number to a location, title, and dated film. This photographic documentation was assembled for the purposes of liaising with a underground mining consultant located in South Africa.

• Images document structural ground support including steel cables, support arches, metal mesh, shotcrete, rockbolts, wooden beams.
• Images show ground support damaged through ground movement, but some depict newly installed or repaired support.
• Images depict ventilation ducting that was crushed or torn.
• Mining processes depicted include miners installing a rock breaker, miners paving the adit floor with concrete, miners inspecting a damaged section of mine, miner loading drill or blastholes with ANFO (ammonium nitrate / fuel oil mixture) explosives, and long hole drilling.
• Technical elements of the underground mine depicted include a mining device and ore in a chute (annotated ‘1290 crusher’), the conveyor, ‘LH drill’, ore processing machine annotated ‘1350 breaker’, and an electrical box titled ‘Weighometer’.
• Specific locations shown include ore draw points, ore passes, access drifts, a hatch and door titled “Fuel station 1415”, and a dead end drift with a stack of equipment and an orange cable annotated “1335 access electrical stations”.

Photographs of various Cassiar Staff at work. There is extensive annotations on the back of each photo explaining who is depicted and where they are working.

Two large black and white prints of infrared dryers annotated on recto "Thompson Pipe and Steel Company Bulk Material Dryers Van Dorn Iron Works Company" and bearing on verso the ink stamp of a photographer from Cleveland, Ohio.

Photographic negatives depict men on tour in unknown locations in Russia. Images depict urban areas, mining areas, construction of buildings, railway, mineral samples, and equipment including dump truck and electric shovel. Also includes images of area speculated to be a mine pit. Men on tour are dressed in formal attire.

Handwritten annotation in pencil on envelope containing negatives: "Russian 'Asbest' Mine Slides" "7 copies of each - 23 negatives - 161 prints".