The Inco mine at Sudbury, Ontario – digging into a layer of sulfuriferous rock to reach the remains of an ancient metallic bolide rich with copper and nickel. This image clearly shows what is the largest smokestack in North America, and the second tallest on earth.

It spews out sulfur dioxide produced by Inco’s Copper Cliff smelting operation — and is probably the single largest point-source for acid rain-causing emissions on the entire continent.

"Toronto-based Inco, the world’s second-biggest nickel producer, got its start in Sudbury in 1902 and today runs a vast mining, smelting, milling and refining complex in the region that employs some 4,500 people." The Globe and Mail

"When nickel-copper ore is smelted, this sulfur is released into the environment. The sulfur is toxic to vegetation. Carried aloft, it combines with atmospheric water to form sulfuric acid. This contaminates atmospheric water, resulting in a phenomenon known as acid rain. Acid rain erodes rocks and masonry, kills plants, and acidifies soil, discouraging regeneration of vegetation. In the Sudbury area, vegetation was decimated, both by acid rain and by logging to provide fuel for early smelting techniques. The erosion exposed bedrock, which was charred in most places to a pitted, dark black appearance." source

In the 1950s and 60s, Inco and Falconbridge employees had to fight their companies for the right to unionize.

"Labour issues would continue to be Sudbury’s dominant economic challenge. In 1979, Inco workers embarked on a strike over production and employment cutbacks, which lasted for nine full months. As Inco was by this time Sudbury’s largest employer, the strike decimated Sudbury’s economy." source

Inco is currently embarked on a campaign to break the hardrock mining union, the Subury local being one of Canada’s strongest.

The high concentration of metals found in the Sudbury Basin are believed to be the remnants of a 1,850 year old meteorite impact crater. When this meteorite smashed into Canada’s Precambrian Shield, transition metals like platinum were formed in the resulting extreme heat and pressure.

Somehow, an unusually high concentration of sulfur wound up in the mix as well. Smells rotten.

During the Apollo program, NASA astronauts trained in Sudbury to locate the shatter cones formed during the impact. There weren’t there because Sudbury strangely resembled the lifeless wastelands of the moon.

The moon doesn’t smell like anything.

You can still see the sulfur pond and tailings from an unbelievable height. What is harder to see in this image is how breast cancer rates are much higher for the populations downwind of Sudbury than for the regions to the west. No one is sure why.

Water looks beautiful from space, especially in Canada. That’s the Georgian Bay to the south and large Lake Nipissing to the east. The smaller, dark body of water directly northeast of Sudbury is Wanapitei Lake.

Thanks to Nat Vaprin.

Sprol Revisit: Sudbury previously appeared in Like a Neon Sign.

The company operating here has been repeatedly cited for violating environmental regulations. The tailings pool itself is an acidic mix of nickel, nickel arsenide, copper, chromium, zinc, lead, aluminum, phosphorous, iron, and who knows what else. Dumped into the ground. Notice the lack of land-based vegetation in the area? According to one resident, the township had to dump lime on the soil — with helicopters — in order to get trees to grow there.

The toxic chemicals involved in the refining of nickel cause deadly cancer in people. It’s also incredibly dangerous work. Although this site is in Canada, the mining industry in the United States is the most perilous industry one can toil in. More dangerous than fishing. More dangerous than building skyscrapers.

But Inco, the owners of the vast Sudbury complex shown here, have at least one hundred reasons to celebrate. Plus, the world continues to need nickel, for a gazillion different uses, I’m positive. But one wonders if there might be a way to extract the metal that doesn’t turn the region into a wasteland and poison all the residents.