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ANDCO and ASARCO: Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company and American Smelting and Refining Company
Circa 1910
Newfoundland, Canada


Credits:
Photograph: Taylor, S.J. The Great Outsiders; Northcliffe, Rothermere and The Daily Mail. Copyright © S.J. Taylor, 1996
Text: http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/buchanstown.html

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The Buchans Mining Company (BMC) was incorporated 29 January, 1927, and on 19 May, with J. Ward Williams in charge, ten men arrived to lay the groundwork for the operation. By July, prospectors had discovered another large ore body just west of the original "Lucky Strike" site, and the shaft-sinking was well underway by the time winter set in. Over 400 people were directly involved in the operation, and work began on the many industrial and residential buildings (including bunkhouses and married quarters) that the operation required. The BMC was aided in this start-up phase by a deal reached earlier in the year with the Newfoundland government, whereby materials and equipment for the mine and the town were to enjoy duty-free importation for a period of 20 years.

The deal caused an uproar in many quarters, including the House of Assembly, where members argued that Buchans was fast becoming a privately-owned community, completely outside the control and jurisdiction of the colonial government. The Monroe administration responded that desperate economic conditions left no choice but to give in to the company's demands.

In the land grants, royalty breaks, and tariff concessions the developers enjoyed, the Buchans situation was not unlike other Newfoundland resource-sector developments. The argument based on the need for employment and development capital was, and continues to be, a familiar one.

One way in which Buchans differed from other mining communities, however, such as Bell Island and St. Lawrence, was that it was literally built around and in conjunction with the mining industry. While Bell Island (where the iron mines were opened in 1895) and St. Lawrence (where fluorspar mining began in 1933) certainly grew and changed a great deal after the introduction of mining, they were established communities with sizeable permanent populations for many years before the arrival of the mines. In the case of Buchans, a town was built in the wilderness for the sole purpose of mining and milling the ore. By the fall of 1927, for example, where a year before there had been only wilderness, there stood, in addition to the mine and mill, a number of bunkhouses and cottages for married workers, a church, and a school. By 1928, a hospital and a hydro-electric plant had been added.

Another fundamental difference between Buchans and other mining towns on the island was the degree of control which the company exercised over nearly all aspects of life there. The company owned and controlled the houses, and sold and controlled the fuel, electricity, and nearly all other material needs. In fact, private, non-company merchants and itinerant vendors were not permitted to do business in town. No individual could build or own a permanent, private structure or even carry out repairs on company-owned housing. Furthermore, the company owned and controlled the 23-mile railroad track to Millertown, the only connection to the outside world. Persons could travel this rail line only with written permission of the company. In the manner in which it was planned, constructed and controlled, therefore, Buchans was more like the AND's other major industrial site, the pulp and paper town of Grand Falls, than any other mining town on the island.