Dominion Bureau of Statistics, The Asbestos Mining Industry in Canada, 1948 (1949)

An eight-page statistical report on Canada's asbestos mines in 1948, issued in 1949 by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics in Ottawa. It reports a record year: 716,769 tons shipped, worth $42,231,475, all of it from Quebec, by 11 firms employing 4,959 people. It reprints a Bureau of Mines description of Canadian asbestos ("practically all of the chrysotile variety," from the Eastern Townships around Thetford Mines, Black Lake and Asbestos), the Quebec grading system for crude and milled fibre, and tables of shipments, employment, fuel, taxes, workmen's compensation costs and exports, with a directory of the mining firms.

What it shows

The directory lists the companies then mining in Quebec, including Asbestos Corporation, Bell Asbestos Mines, Canadian Johns-Manville at Asbestos, Flintkote Mines, Johnson's Company and Nicolet Asbestos Mines, and notes that Bell and Canadian Johns-Manville were sinking shafts for underground block-caving. The industry paid $629,706 in workmen's compensation in 1948, up from $450,248 in 1946, and exported nearly all of its output: 237,077 tons of milled fibre and 452,493 tons of shorts and waste that year.