Transformation on the Labrador Trough

In the rugged terrain of Newfoundland and Labrador, Iron Ore Company of Canada, under Rio Tinto's stewardship, has come back in just five years from deep decline to record breaking performances. Ralph Mills reports.

In a five seater Beechcraft it's a three hour flight from Montreal to Labrador City. The path takes us beyond north eastern Quebec province, which from above resembles crazy calligraphy scratched and blotted onto brown paper with a thick and leaky blue pen, at first with an overlying scribble of forestry roads, but in the end just rock, trees and water, water everywhere. The Australian phrase "the tyranny of distance" is very relevant here.

Our destination is defined by the war cry "Iron ore by 54!", the goal that drove those involved in the superhuman efforts that created Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC). No-one can remember who thought it up, but it became the rallying cry of IOC back in the early 1950s as the company raced to overcome a battery of challenges that lay in the path of creating a viable mining operation deep in the barren heart of Quebec, with Labrador following a decade later.

A 568km railway was being constructed along the twisting route of the Moisie River, planes were buzzing back and forth into the interior carrying geologists and engineers and equipment, a ship loading facility was under construction at Sept-Îles, all against a background of rugged terrain and sub-arctic climate.