Shaped by boom-and-bust: a history of the Canadian mining industry since 1859

Figures & data

Table 1. Variables representing the five institutional forms.

Institutional Forms	Observable Variables
1. Forms of competition	1.1. Price fluctuation 1.2. Degree of concentration	1.3. Number of firms 1.4. Competition among workers
2. Monetary regime	2.1. Speculation	2.3. Monetary policy
	2.2. Credit supplies including FDI
3. State interventions	3.1. Tax, royalties and subsidies 3.2. Public ownership	3.4. Economic and social policies 3.5. Indigenous governance
	3.3. Services to private companies including exploration and infrastructure
4. Wage relation	4.1. Wage, employment, wage share and their determinants 4.2. Organisation of work	4.3. Unionisation 4.4. Services to workers in mining town
5. International economic relations	5.1. Foreign ownership 5.2. Trade agreement	5.3. Cross-border capital flows 5.4. Exchange rate and terms of trade

Figure 1. Timeline of the mining regimes.

Table 2. Characteristics of the four Canadian mining regimes.

Mining Regimes	Characteristics
Regime 1. Formative Speculation 1859–1939	Forms of Competition	Few small and artisanal companies.
		Emergence of towns centred around specific mineral extraction.
	Monetary Regime	Gold Standard influences demand for gold.
		High degree of speculation.
	State interventions	State laissez-faire with adoption of Free Mining Principle and tolerance for speculative activities.
	Wage relation	Core responsibilities to prospector-entrepreneur-speculators, many from US.
		Service provision via mine-owned towns.
		Segmentation of labour force.
	*International Economic Relation	Major US, UK and French influence in mineral production.
Regime 2. Configuration of National Expansion 1939–80	*Forms of Competition	Technology allows for concentration of production and expansion of resource frontier.
	Monetary Regime	High price and demand for minerals.
	State interventions	Mining as national development strategy (export-led).
	Wage relation	Large demand for labour frequent onsite accidents together with rise of trade unions and labour conflicts.
	International Economic Relation	WWII and subsequent reconstruction increase demand for minerals.
		US interests own large share of profit, companies and value-added concentration.
Regime 3. Labour Substitution and Globalisation 1980–96	Forms of Competition	Internationalisation and globalisation of production.
		Major wave of closures.
	Monetary Regime	Major mineral price decline.
	State interventions	Top-down approach.
	*Wage relation	Labour substitution and major decline employment.
	International Economic Relation	Canadian mining companies internationalise production.
Regime 4. Negotiated Legitimacy for Extraction 1996–	Forms of Competition	New corporate responsibility discourse.
	*Monetary Regime	Financialisation and upswing in production.
	State interventions	Generous state provision of subsidies and grants.
		New environmental laws and multi-stakeholder agreements, notably with indigenous communities.
	Wage relation	Rise of fly-in-fly-out work relations.
		Stark decline of labour share.
	International Economic Relation	FDI inflows associate to rising mineral prices and NAFTA renewed resource dependency of Canada.

Figure 2. Booms in Gold Production in Canada and Selected Provinces, 1858–1985. Source: Author’s contribution from Natural Resources Canada (2021).

Note: Three gold booms occur during the regime period: (1) in British Columbia, 1858–1862 (Cariboo and Frayser Canyon); (2) Klondike Gold Rush, Yukon, 1896–1899 and (3) Quebec and Northern Ontario, from the 1920s. The quantity shipped uses a proxy, as the quasi-entirety of production was exported and followed the same cycles.

Figure 3. Growth and Composition of Inputs in the Industry of Mining, Canada, 1961–2019. Source: Author’s contribution from Statistics Canada (2024).

Figure 4. Commodity Price Cycle in Metals and other Minerals, 1960–2010. Source: Macdonald (2017) and Statistics Canada (2011).

Note: The value of production increases while the total employment decreases during the third regime.

Figure 5. Value of Production and Labour Force of Canadian Mines, 1961–2000. Source: Author’s contribution Statistics Canada (2006).

Figure 6. Capital Inflow from the United States in the Sectors of Energy and Mineral, 1972–2022. Source: Author’s contribution from Bank of Canada (2024), Statistics Canada (2023) and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (2024).

Note: BCIP refers to the Annual Bank of Canada commodity price index for Energy and Metals and Minerals, respectively. The flow of direct investment from the United States are larger and increase before in Energy than Minerals.

Figure 7. Changes in the Labour Share in the Mining Industry, Canada, 1961–2019. Source: Author’s calculation from Statistics Canada (2024).

Note: Industry based on North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Trends calculated using Christiano and Fitzgerald (2003) time series.

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