In the early 1800's, the French dug coal at Indian Beach and at Lloyd's Cove. Some of the old workings can still be seen along the shore to this day.
The Yard Pit, situated behind where the British Canadian Coop was built on Main Street, began operations in 1830. It was the first coal shaft to be sunk in the province of Nova Scotia. A small railroad was built at that time to transport the coal to the wharf, where it was loaded on small boats, then reloaded into larger vessels for export. Around this time, an iron foundry, machine shops, repair shops, etc. were built to service their equipment and machinery.
In 1839 there were two hundred and ten men listed as being employed in or at the Yard Pit and Jacob Pit in Sydney Mines. Following is a list of the surnames of those men:
Anderson, Angus, Armstrong, Baird, Banhill, Bonner, Bradbury, Brisco, Brown, Buchanan, Cahill, Campbell, Calder, Clyde, Connell, Carmichael, Cashen, Clark, Clarey, Cook, Currie, Day, Deacon, Donovan, Donahue, Droon, Duggan, Dunlap, Duffle, Eastin, Elsworth, Fleming, Ferguson, Fitzharris, Francis, Foley, Folliott, Gannon, Gilmore, Gilroy, Green, Griffith, Hartigan, Hodgutt, Hunter, Hutchinson, Isaac, Johnston, Kavanaugh, Keigan, Laird, Langwith, Lockman, Long, MacAulay, MacCoe, MaClay, MacGowan, McCarthy, MacCormack, MacDonald, MacDougall, MacIntvre, MacKinnon, MacLean, MacMahon, MacNamara, MacPherson, MacQueen, Madden, Manley, Meaney, Martin, Matthews, Meagher, Maloney, Melvin, Miller, Merritt, Moore, Morgan, Morrison, Muir, Mulvey, Munroe, Murphy, Neil, Neville, O'Brien, O'Neill, O'Toole, Oram, Parker, Patrick, Penman, Phillips, Ramsay, Rankin, Rhoyane, Robertson, Roe, Sennett, Simpson, Smith, Stewart, Stubbert, Sullivan, Sommers, Thomas, Thompson, Toole, Walker, Whalen, White, Wise, Williams and Vickers.
In 1892 John Greener started to mine in the area, mainly because transportation was readily available (harbour and rail facilities) and he also received financial backing from a group of Americans to form the Sydney Coal Company with their head office in Boston. They continued to operate the mine until 1919 when a new company called the Indian Cove Coal company bought control. In later years, D. Owen Hartigan, who served as Mayor of Sydney Mines from 1946-1967, took over as General Manager.