In the beginning, her shifts were a rotation of seven afternoons, seven nights, seven days, and finally four days off. This changed to twelve-hour shifts, two days, two nights and then four days off. This enabled Fran to enjoy many of the activities the North Island provided and lots of them were done with Crew 3, water skiing at Connor Lake, barbecues in Quatsino Sound, fishing, ski trips, baseball, squash, hiking, and camping just to mention a few.

Arrival of In-pit Crusher off the barge on a space carrier
Crusher being moved off the barge on the space shuttle carrier

The mine ran twenty-four hours a day for about twenty-five years. She mentioned that they all knew that it had a shelf life of about twenty-five years right from the start but she is sure that a lot of people would still be there if the mine was still in operation. On the other hand, many people got fantastic opportunities that they may not have had if the mine had not closed. Some of the workers took jobs in places like Papua New Guinea, Africa, Chile, and Indonesia and in the Yukon. Fran mentioned how impressed she was with the way that BHP Minerals assisted the employees when it came close to closing the mine.
Fran Hutchison

Fran made a career change after the mine closed, and now works as safety consultant for two major hospitals in the Lower Mainland. The underlying motivation for her career change was location, most mining jobs were in northern BC, and after living on the Island, it just did not compare. Another reason was that in the mid 1990’s mining was in a decline with an uncertain future, so a career change seemed like a good idea.

When asked if she ever got back to Port Hardy, Fran told us that she gets back from time to time, not often enough, but has been out to the old mine site. Fran explained to us that Island Copper was on the forefront when it came to reclamation of mining properties.
Flooding of pit
Fran & First Aid Crew
Fran watched with other employees when they started to flood the pit and turn it into a lake. She said that it took less time to flood the pit than was expected; about how the micro-organisms were introduced into the water, and that this process attracted a lot of wildlife. The water was a beautiful blue colour because of the copper minerals that are in the walls of the pit. Fran mentioned that while she worked at Island Copper, her partner Dennis took many photos and videos of the mine at different stages of its operation


Toward the end of the interview with Fran, she mentioned that she missed the sense of community and friendship that surrounded the mine. Some of her life-long friendships started with people that she worked with at Island Copper, and they still manage to get together in spite of being spread out. The mine workers always socialized after work, something that does not happen very often in her new job in a city environment.
 
Fran Hutchison, 2006