 Quebec drove a hard bargain with Newfoundland, resulting in a 75-year deal that Newfoundlanders now believe to be unfair to the province because of the low and unchangeable rate that it receives for the electricity.Although the first geological studies were undertaken in 1892, iron mining did not begin until the 1950s.By 1990, the Quebec-Labrador area had become an important supplier of iron ore to the United States.