Way up north
Bruce Wallace spent most of his working life mining in the north.
For approximately 42 years Bruce Wallace spent much of his working life as a miner in the far north. Retiring Jan. 15, 2017, Wallace’s story involves some chilling and interesting career experiences.
In the fall of 1974, as a 21- year- old, Wallace boarded a train in Truro and headed for Edmonton. e trip proved to be a life- changer.
“I didn’t really have a clue where I was going,” recalled Wallace, who grew up in Upper Stewiacke. “I really didn’t know if I would nd work.”
Within a few days, Wallace decided to work his way back towards Nova Scotia.
“It was in Winnipeg, Manitoba that I decided to go into the Unemployment Office. It was there I learned they were looking for mine trainees in Northern Manitoba.”
He was hired by the Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting Company and went to work in Snow Lake, Man.
“Working in that copper- zinc mine was the start of my underground mining days.”
Wallace returned to Nova Scotia during the early 1980s and worked for two years at a lead
and zinc mine in Gays River.
“Northern mining representatives came to Nova Scotia and I put my name down for Comico in Nunavut,” Wallace recalled. “ at’s where I was hired and I went to work in the Polaris Mine on Little Cornwallis Island, an Arctic island located North of Resolute Bay, 1,500 kilometres from the North Pole.”
Wallace spent 16 years in that lead- zinc mine as an underground miner.
“I drilled and did a number of things as a development miner; as time went by I learned to master many facets of mining.”
Underground mining jobs took Wallace to other places such as Snaplake near Yellowknife
and Watson Lake in the Yukon. He experienced lots of cold weather.
“Way up north it could get around 40- below but the wind chill could be 60below. e wind really blows over the smooth, at land. It was really cold and it was really important how you dressed. ere was bigtime ying involved in getting to work sites; I ew in 747s on longer trips and small planes to remote mining areas.
“In my early days in mining I’d get to come home to Nova Scotia every couple of months. at, more or less, was my life – two months away working and two months at home.”
Working 24 years in underground mining wasn’t without peril.
“Yes, there certainly was a certain amount of danger involved; a guy had to be lucky. Having worked down in those mines all those years, I feel fortunate there was no major accident. I had a lot of close calls though.”
Beginning in 2010, Wallace worked at an open pit mine, the Horizon Oil Sands, north of Fort McMurray. Under the parent company, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Wallace drove a 797 Caterpillar 400- ton truck, the biggest truck in the world, for six and a half years.
“ ese trucks cost about six million dollars; the tires run around $ 60,000 each,” said Wallace. “They haul oil sand and waste. A short haul in the pit would be about a quarter of a mile, the longer hauls were a few kilometres. We worked 12- hour shifts; you’re up at four o’clock in the morning and you might get home at six thirty p. m.”
e last day on the job, Jan. 15, Wallace’s boss took a ‘ celebration photo’ of Wallace and Tony Miller, of Truro, standing beside a large caterpillar truck. Shortly after, Wallace returned home to Nova Scotia. Along with his wife Barbara and daughter Becky, the Wallace family has lived in Brook eld for the past 20 years. Another daughter, Trina, lives in Fort McMurray.
“It’s quite an adjustment,” Wallace said. “I look back at all those years being away, now being retired, I nd it hard to believe that I won’t be going back to mining.”
Besides trying to relax, Wallace has been enjoying three outings of pickup hockey each week.
He also spends a lot of time walking his two Jack Russell Terriers, Zip and Chevy.
“Dad has been away a lot of my life,” his daughter Becky said. “Dad really deserves some home life; he’s worked a lot of years away. It’s really great to have Dad back home.”