PORT-CARTIER

town, Cte-Nord region, eastern Quebec province, Canada. It lies on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, at the mouth of the Rivire aux Rochers. Originating in 1918 as a small sawmilling community known as Shelter Bay, it was transformed into a modern ocean port 26 miles (42 km) southwest of Sept-les by the Quebec Cartier Mining Company in the 1950s and '60s. Port-Cartier is now the southern terminus of a 195-mile railway from Gagnon, the centre of the Lac-Jeannine iron-ore mining region. Its man-made harbour, from which the ore concentrates are exported, was opened in 1961. Inc. 1958. Pop. (1991) 7,383.