Sudbury Slag

Driving up to Sudbury, I get a call from a fellow explorer and friend, Jef. He was very happy to share his recommendations on accommodations and the best fried chicken in town with us (Deluxe restaurant) and insisted that regardless of what we had planned, we had to go watch the slag dump one night while we were in Sudbury. I had seen videos of this before, and it was a pretty surreal sight, molten metal being poured over the side of a hill, covered in slag which actually looks like coal from far away.

As far as you can see everything is black, there are no trees, grass or even weeds, with nothing living for miles. Do you see where I am going with this? It’s a lunar landscape, and one which I wasn’t going to miss after seeing such great images of Sudbury’s eerie landscape from other photographers.

We got directions the second night from another local who told us that access could not be easier to get to Inco’s slag dump. Climbing up a huge hill, the only thing stopping us was traffic and a road leading right up to the dump. Several levels of slag, with roads, lights and rail tracks were laid out in front of us. After climbing up a few hundred meters, we were at what appeared to be the top of the dump, but which dipped and meandered around over an area so extensive it felt as if you were walking on another planet. There was a full moon which provided enough light, but since everything was black you could not be seen. You could hear the slag train approach in the deafening silence. There were no birds or bugs flying about here. Taking a break I sat down and looked over Sudbury.  When a loose piece of slag rolled down the hill, you heard it go clankity, clank CLANK  (!) as it made its way down the hill. Taking a break and looking around from the top of the hill I noticed a thick, nasty haze floating over the city, glowing from the city lights below. What most don’t realize (or wish to ignore) is that Sudbury’s ‘superstack’ really only gets going in the evening, coinciding nicely with the cover of darkness. As soon as it gets dark, it’s churning away. Interestingly it doesn’t smell quite as bad as say Hamilton does on a bad day, but you can see it. Sadly these images of mine never tuned out. We spent a few hours mulling about and decided to call it a night around 3AM.  We slowly made our way down and back to the truck where we had some sleeping to catch up on in the truck.

Slag dumps however should come with a warning label. Don’t wear shorts or t-shirts. The slag ‘bits’ themselves are pretty surreal too. They look like coal, sound like glass as you walk across them, and are deadly sharp. They form these ‘lumps’ as they cool and break off from the molten liquid slag that is poured out. They are byproducts from the refining process and are made up of silica and mostly iron.  I don’t even want to think about the hundreds of cuts I had (even through my pants) from that night which were similar to paper cuts accompanied by deep bruises that didn’t heal for at least 3 weeks.  Was a very cool place to experience but I did get some weird looks from people because my right leg looked like it had been through a meat grinder. Deluxe restaurants’ chicken sandwich, and INCO’s slag dumps are highly recommended to explorers if you ever find yourself in Sudbury with nothing to do…but in a city like Sudbury, how can you not find yourself with endless choices to pass the time?

Photos by Kathy and Jan.