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Copper Cliff

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Copper Cliff
Community
Country Canada
Province Ontario
CityGreater Sudbury
Ward2
Founded1883
Incorporated1901
Annexed1973
Government
 • City CouncillorEric Benoit
 • Governing BodyGreater Sudbury City Council
 • MPsViviane Lapointe (Liberal)
 • MPPsJamie West (NDP)
Time zoneUTC−5 (EST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)
Postal Code FSA
P0M 0C1, P0M 1N0
Area code705

Copper Cliff is a community and former company town in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Incorporated in 1901,[1] Copper Cliff was a separate municipality until it was annexed by the City of Sudbury in 1973 as part of the creation of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury.[1]

History

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Copper Cliff Smelter, c. 1925

When the Canadian Pacific Railway was being constructed in the region in 1883, blacksmith Tom Flanagan discovered chalcopyrite deposits in the area of what is now Copper Cliff.[2] The ore was initially shipped to a smelting plant in Constable Hook, New Jersey, where it was discovered that the ore was rich in nickel.[2] Robert M. Thompson discovered the first commercially viable method of separating Pentlandite-borne Nickel from Chalcopyrite-borne Copper in 1893,[1] and nickel mining in the Sudbury area began in 1902.[citation needed]

Copper Cliff was founded as a company town by the Canadian Copper Company in the 1890s.[1] When Copper Cliff was incorporated in 1901, it had a larger population than the Town of Sudbury.[1] The International Nickel Company of Canada, later known as Inco, was incorporated in Copper Cliff in 1916.[citation needed]

The City of Sudbury attempted to annex Copper Cliff a number of times in order to gain municipal taxation rights to the mining facilities in the community, but these attempts were rejected by the Ontario Municipal Board due to incompatibilities with federal and provincial mining taxation rules.[1] As part of municipal restructuring in 1973, the town was annexed by the city as part of the creation of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury. At the time of the annexation, about 4,000 people lived in Copper Cliff.[3] A ceremony was held by residents on 31 December 1972 to mourn the loss of the town.[4] Some residents opposed the merger, and had formed a committee to oppose it.[5]

The Inco Superstack was completed by Inco in 1972, and was the tallest chimney in the world until the construction of the Ekibastuz GRES-2 Power Station in the Kazakh SSR in 1987.[6] The Superstack was decommissioned in 2020.[7]

Little Italy

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Copper Cliff is home to an Italian Canadian community that traditionally inhabited the Little Italy neighbourhood located near the base of the Superstack centred on Diorite Street and Craig Street.[8] A number of Italian-Canadians in Copper Cliff trace their heritage to the Italian town of Metaurilia in the Pesaro e Urbino commune of Fano.[9]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Wallace, Carl; Thomson, Ashley, eds. (2010). Sudbury: rail town to regional capital. Toronto Oxford: Dundurn. ISBN 978-1-55002-170-7.
  2. ^ a b Jewiss, Tom (Spring 1983). "EARTH SCIENCES MUSEUM : The mining history of the Sudbury area". University of Waterloo. Department of Earth and Environmental Science.
  3. ^ "Copper Cliff becomes part of Sudbury". North Bay Nugget. 1973-01-02. p. 11. Retrieved 2025-09-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Copper Cliff passes". The Windsor Star. 1973-01-02. p. 12. Retrieved 2025-09-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Union with Sudbury fought by Copper Cliff". The Toronto Star. 1972-05-20. p. 20. Retrieved 2025-09-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "GRES-2 Chimney (Ekibastuz, 1987)". structurae.net. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
  7. ^ "Sudbury's iconic Superstack operational no more". Northern Ontario Business. 2020-07-28. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
  8. ^ Shorthouse, Joe (2024-05-10). "Accent: Little has changed in Little Italy". The Sudbury Star. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
  9. ^ Gentili, Mark (2025-06-04). "Italian visitors attempt to solve a Copper Cliff mystery". Sudbury.com. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
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