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Events/Discovery · 1883

Copper-bearing rock found during Canadian Pacific Railway works at Sudbury

Discovery, 1883, Canada.

What happened

Tom Flanagan, a blacksmith for the railway construction crew, noticed copper-bearing rock on a hillside in 1883. The find led to the Murray Mine.1,2

Why it matters

It started the Sudbury nickel-copper camp.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Copper-bearing rock found during Canadian Pacific Railway works at Sudbury

    It started the Sudbury nickel-copper camp.1,2

Open the full timeline

Where next

People

Discovered byThomas FroodA teacher and chemist turned prospector in northern Ontario in 1883.3

Mines

Led toCopper Cliff Mine (Sudbury)A blacksmith's find in 1883 led to the Murray Mine and Copper Cliff in 1886.4Came out ofCreightonRead what happened near Creighton: Copper-bearing rock found during Canadian Pacific Railway works at Sudbury.5

Places

Located inGreater SudburyIt started the Sudbury nickel-copper camp.1

Sources

  1. Discovery Site of Sudbury Mining Camp (geotour sheet) Ontario Geological Survey / Ministry of Mines
  2. Greater Sudbury (item Q383434), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. FROOD, THOMAS Dictionary of Canadian Biography
  4. Sudbury mining history University of Waterloo
  5. Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2025 Vale S.A. (SEC)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Elektrisk malmletning. Undersökningar på Billiton, 1920., Okänd / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Falu gruva, Lundberg, Bengt A / Europeana (CC0 1.0).