Hedman Mines Limited

Hedman Mines Limited was a small Canadian company that mined short-fiber chrysotile asbestos from an open pit east of Matheson in northern Ontario and milled it near Matheson, selling Group 7 fiber to paper, paving, plastics and other makers. Gulf & Western bought half its stock in 1967 and financed a production plant, which began producing in the early 1970s. The library's records follow the company into the early 1980s but do not show how its business ended.

Draft. The history on this page was written from the documents in our library and has not yet been reviewed by a person.

History

Hedman Mines was incorporated on August 10, 1956, according to notes to its own 1974 financial statements.⁶ The U.S. Bureau of Mines' Minerals Yearbook for 1961 reported that construction of a 40-ton-per-day pilot mill had begun at the Hedman property east of Matheson, and that the main zone reportedly held more than 8 million tons of ore.⁷ In December 1961 the trade journal Asbestos announced the company's "Progress Report #14," issued by J. J. Mangan, its President and Managing Director, from an office in Timmins, Ontario.⁸ Mangan held that title in the journal's listings from 1963 through 1980.^4,9

The pilot plant ran through the 1960s. The yearbook for 1962 put open-pit reserves to a depth of 300 feet at 8.5 million tons and said the design of a large mill was nearly complete.¹⁰ Asbestos, citing The Northern Miner, reported that Hedman produced over 3,055,000 pounds of asbestos in 1964, worth $67,226.¹¹ In January 1966 the journal said the pilot plant's products had been used in "the newsprint industry, asbestos-asphalt paving, plastics, building products, brakes, etc.," that Hedman "pioneered in the use of Group 7 fibre in newsprint," and that the company was seeking financing for a plant to turn out 120 tons of Group 7 fiber a day.² A July 1966 survey described the property as 29 contiguous claims, with all of the asbestos produced in the Group 7 category.¹²

In June 1967 Asbestos reported that Gulf & Western (Canada) Limited had bought 50% of Hedman's stock and would provide "up to US $2,000,000 in financing" to complete the project, with Gulf & Western's subsidiary The New Jersey Zinc Company taking part in management, research and marketing.³ The journal said Mangan would stay on as President and Managing Director and that four of the seven directors would come from New Jersey Zinc.³ Hedman's 1974 financial statement describes the loan differently: under an agreement dated March 31, 1967, Gulf & Western agreed to lend, or arrange a loan of, up to US$500,000, and by January 31, 1974 Hedman had received Canadian $799,974.⁶ The two figures differ, and neither document explains the difference.

The same 1974 statement says Hedman ran a temporary pilot mill "up to January 1969," and that although the production plant had been completed, it was "not yet producing up to its planned capacity" because markets for the product had not been fully developed.⁶ A 1977 item in Asbestos said Hedman built the plant in the late 1960s, began producing in the early 1970s, lost money from 1973 to 1975, and showed a net profit of $300,178 for the year ended July 31, 1976.⁵ In that report the journal said Gulf & Western (Canada) owned 1.5 million shares, and from 1975 the journal described Hedman as owned by Gulf + Western Industries.^5,13

Output and products

The sources give different pictures of Hedman's output in the mid-1970s, and this entry does not choose between them. In December 1975 Asbestos said Hedman ran "a small mine and mill" producing about 7,000 short tons a year of Grade 7.¹³ In December 1976 the journal said the mine handled about 112 tons of ore a day, trucked 25 miles to the mill, for about 7,000 short tons a year of a mostly "non-fibrous, industrial, serpentine filler."¹⁴ In June 1977 it quoted Mangan's 1976 annual report as recording "shipments of 16,009 tons of Hedman cationic fiber" and proven reserves of 10.3 million tons to 300 feet.⁵ In December 1978 it put shipments at 10,000 to 15,000 tons of cationic fiber a year.¹⁵

The Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases lists two Hedman product names, "Hedman" and "Hedman Special 7-1," each described simply as asbestos.^16,17 The mine's own page gathers every statement about the property in the documents.¹

What the documents show

The library has no Hedman document about dust, health or warnings. The Hedman papers the library holds came to it through Union Carbide. Hedman's unaudited financial statements for the six months ended January 31, 1974 are among the Union Carbide trial exhibits.⁶ A 1986 listing of Umetco (Union Carbide) asbestos files sent to Union Carbide's records center names Hedman Mines under the heading "Competition."¹⁸ A list enclosed with a 1979 Union Carbide memo names Hedman Mines Ltd. among the parties that responded to the U.S. Department of Transportation's proposed rule on shipping asbestos (Docket HM-160).¹⁹

Asbestos continued to list Hedman officers through 1980, and its last mention of the company in the library's search results is a February 1981 listing of the executive vice president.^9,20 No court case in the library names Hedman Mines, and the library holds no record of a bankruptcy, sale or closing.

References

1. Hedman Mines property, east of Matheson, near Lake Albititi, Ontario (mine page)
2. Asbestos, January 1966, p. 18
3. Asbestos, June 1967, p. 9
4. Asbestos, November 1963, p. 25
5. Asbestos, June 1977, p. 34
6. UC-3556: Hedman Mines Limited Unaudited Financial Statements for the Six Months Ended January 31, 1974 (1974), p. 4
7. Minerals Yearbook: Asbestos Chapters, 1961, p. 9
8. Asbestos, December 1961, p. 48
9. Asbestos, October 1980, p. 48
10. Minerals Yearbook: Asbestos Chapters, 1962, p. 9
11. Asbestos, July 1965, p. 21
12. Asbestos, July 1966, p. 24
13. Asbestos, December 1975, p. 32
14. Asbestos, December 1976, p. 34
15. Asbestos, December 1978, p. 36
16. Hedman (Hedman Mines), product page
17. Hedman Special 7-1 (Hedman Mines), product page
18. UC-4823: Eileen Roche (Umetco Minerals) to P. J. Fournier Transmitting a Listing of Umetco Asbestos Files Sent to the Union Carbide Records Center (1986), p. 5
19. UC-3329: W. G. Kahler II to T. R. Alexander and Others on DOT Docket HM-160, Transportation of Asbestos (1979), p. 2
20. Asbestos, February 1981, p. 36

Asbestos products

2 products our documents name Hedman Mines Limited as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• Hedman (Hedman Mines)
• Hedman Special 7-1 (Hedman Mines)

Mines

Asbestos mines the documents name Hedman Mines Limited as running or owning.

• Hedman Mines property, east of Matheson, near Lake Albititi, Ontario

In the Union Carbide documents

Hedman Mines Limited is named in 3 Union Carbide documents dated 1974 to 1986 (1 as the source, 3 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

• Hedman Mines Limited Unaudited Financial Statements for the Six Months Ended January 31, 1974 (1974) UC-3556 (mentioned, source)
• W. G. Kahler II to T. R. Alexander and Others on DOT Docket HM-160, Transportation of Asbestos, with Commenter Lists and DOT Regulatory Evaluation (1979) UC-3329 (mentioned)
• Eileen Roche (Umetco Minerals) to P. J. Fournier Transmitting a Listing of Umetco Asbestos Files Sent to the Union Carbide Records Center (1986) UC-4823 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for Hedman Mines Limited, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: Hedman Mines · Hedman Mines Ltd.

Where this comes from

This page brings together every document in our library that names Hedman Mines Limited, across collections. Titles and affiliations are taken from the documents themselves, and units and subsidiaries are grouped under the company they belong to.