Cassiar Asbestos and Modern Living

Cassiar Asbestos and Modern Living

Asbestos and its exceptional qualities have been known for more than two
thousand years, but its universal use in the service of mankind had its beginning only
one hundred years or so ago. During this relatively short period of time asbestos has
emerged as one of the world’s most useful minerals with applications ranging from
pottery to space craft, flooring to welding rods, fire hoses to paint.

Down through history asbestos has served society in a myriad of ways. The Greeks
had aname for it four hundred years before the birth of Christ. They called itAm/anthus,
meaning that it remained undefiled in fire. They wove it into wicks for their temple lamps
because it would not burn, thus providing an ‘everlasting light.” Marco Polo was
astounded when China's Great Khan tossed a piece of asbestos cloth into a fire and
withdrew it unharmed. In the summer of 1725 Benjamin Franklin wrote to Sir Hans
Sloane of London advising him that he had acquired ‘‘a purse made of the stone
asbestos,” and, in 1800, Prince Eugene, Viceroy of Italy, received from his lady a pair of
asbestos gloves which she had woven for him with her own hands — as a mark of her
enduring affection. Today it transports people and freight, builds towers, helps power
the nation and serves mankind and his machines here on earth and in the boundless
reaches of outer space.

Cassiar Asbestos Corporation is part of this great industry — the asbestos industry.
Every year Cassiar produces over 105,000 tons of milled asbestos fibre regarded as
among the finest obtainable anywhere in the world. The wide acceptance of Cassiar’s
asbestos by manufacturers in more than forty-five countries is the result of an excep-
tionally high quality of ore, coupled with the application of extensive research and quality
control.

During the year Cassiar’s representatives visit the world’s principal market areas to
maintain contact with their customers and agents concerning product development,
transportation, environmental control and market trends. Cassiar’s sales agents provide
customers with technical assistance, customs information, expedite shipments and
maintain a continuing communications link between producer and manufacturer of high
grade asbestos products. Ingenious and enterprising manufacturers have shaped the
world of asbestos into products of such variety and consequence that few consumers
are fully aware of the important role asbestos plays in their lives.

Asbestos — the Wonder Material

Like all minerals, asbestos is a product of nature. Its qualities are unique. It will
neither burn nor decay and it is impervious to water. Technically, the term ‘‘asbestos”’ is
the generic name given to a group of hydrated silicate minerals that can be separated
into fibres which have great tensile strength. In fact the term can be said to apply to all
minerals that can be separated in the form of fibre from their parent rock.

There are six major groups of asbestos which are classified under two headings —
Serpentine and Amphibole. The type of asbestos mined at Cassiar is Chrysotile, the
lone member of the Serpentine class and the only type of asbestos mined in Canada.

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