The Company’s specialty sand business started as a result of a fortunate coincidence. In the late 1970’s NSSG had been extracting silica in Musquodoboit. Under difficult circumstances for a while. One day a Scott Paper Employee was bulldozing a logging road near Shubenacadie when his blade exposed some sand. He happened to mention this to a relative who worked for NSSG. This chance comment resulted in the company gaining access to an extremely valuable resource.

The sand turned out to be the top of a silica pit so exceptionally high in quality that it is unique in Nova Scotia. After processing, the finest grade is about 99% pure silica.

The pit is also unique in structure. The majority of silica deposits in the region are flat sheets that lie deep underground between other sediment layers. Such silica is a challenge to extract. In contrast, NSSG’s pit is like a huge bowl. It was probably formed when a sinkhole occurred in the surrounding gypsum, sometime during the cretaceous age (144-65 million years ago) when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.

Additionally, Shaw has always been a good neighbor company committed to supporting the communities in which its plants operation and its employees live. support has taken numerous forms over the years - from helping to build homes for employees in Lance during the Great Depression, to money and product donations for arenas and community centres, land for model homes auction for charity and substantial leadership pledges to United Way.

In 1987 Shaw hired its first information technology manager when it acquired its first personal computer. over the next 15 years as the field exploded and morphed, the IT team at Shaw had to morph with it Drawing on the natural talents of its employees and allowing personnel the opportunity to grow and learn as technology flourished. through the changing times of technology, the methods of manufacturing at Shaw may have changed but their dedication to employees and the community has always been unwavering.

Shaw has come a long way from the years of the Great Depression and has been a great part of the East Hants Community along the way. Throughout this series, we will explore some of these challenges and demonstrate how the company persevered and overcame adversity.