Photos of Old Jeffrey Mine Asbestos Pit
About Old Jeffrey Mine Asbestos Pit
At the edge of Val-des-Sources sits the old Jeffrey Mine pit. The mine ran for well over a century and closed in 2012, and for most of that time it was the largest asbestos mine in the world. Until 2020 the town was called Asbestos. The pit is huge, cut in wide terraces that step the whole way down. Shooting with a wide lens higlights those terraces as they stack across the frame. Scale is the hard part, ideally try to find something to add to the foreground to help show just how vast the pit is as it stretches out in front of you. A trail runs from the observation platform along the rim, about a kilometre over to the Place de la Traversée. It opens up more angles on the pit as you go. Interpretation panels and old mining gear are set out along the way. The observatory and trail are free with parking at the entrance. This is an open mining pit so make sure to stay on the platform and the marked trail. Sherbrooke is about 45 minutes off, so it fits into a day easily. (Val-des-Sources, Quebec, Canada)
