Sudbury

city, seat of Sudbury district, southeastern Ontario, Canada, on Ramsey Lake, 40 miles (65 km) north of Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. It was named for Sudbury, Suffolk, England. Its settlement began with the location of a station of the new Canadian Pacific Railway on the site. Copper- and nickel-bearing ores were discovered there in 1883–84 during the railway's construction, and smelting operations got under way in 1888.

Sudbury became the most important mining centre in Canada, with a majority of its population employed in that industry. Huge nickel concentrators and smelters were erected at Copper Cliff (4 miles [6 km] west of the city) and at Falconbridge (12 miles [19 km] northeast). The city and the surrounding district still produce as much as one-fifth of all the nickel mined in the world and almost all of Ontario's copper.

Significant amounts of gold, silver, platinum, cobalt, sulfur, and iron ore are also mined. Other industries include lumber milling, woodworking, machine shops, and brickworks.

Mining's importance in the city's economy began to decline in the 1960s relative to such sectors as health care, education, and public administration. Sudbury lies along the Trans-Canada Highway and two transcontinental railways and is the chief service and commercial centre for northern Ontario. It is the site of Laurentian University (1960) and Cambrian College (1966). Inc. town, 1893; city, 1930. Pop. (2006) metropolitan area, 158,258.