Elliot Lake, Ontario

Elliot Lake
City (single-tier)
City of Elliot Lake
The city of Elliot Lake; the lake on the right
Elliot Lake Location in Ontario
Coordinates: 46°23′N 82°39′W / 46.383°N 82.650°W / 46.383; -82.650Coordinates: 46°23′N 82°39′W / 46.383°N 82.650°W / 46.383; -82.650
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
District	Algoma
Established	1955
Government
• Mayor	Dan Marchisella
• Governing Body	Elliot Lake City Council
• Federal electoral district	Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing
• Provincial electoral district	Algoma—Manitoulin
Area
• Land	714.65 km2 (275.93 sq mi)
Population (2016)
• Total	10,741
• Density	15.9/km2 (41/sq mi)
Time zone	Eastern Standard Time (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (UTC-4)
Postal Code FSA	P5A
Area code(s)	705
Website	www.cityofelliotlake.com
Municipal rank: 325th in Canada

Elliot Lake is a city in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is north of Lake Huron, midway between the cities of Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie in the Northern Ontario region.

Elliot Lake is among the best places to retire in Ontario, according to Comfort Life, a publication for seniors because of nearby beaches, lakes, hiking, skiing and snowmobiling as well as affordability. The Globe and Mail also makes this recommendation.

Prior to the settlement of the city, an Ojibwa village existed near the present hospital site on the lake's shoreline.

The city was established as a planned community for the mining industry in 1955 after the discovery of uranium in the area, and named after the small lake on its northern edge. By the late 1950s, its population had grown to about 25,000. It was originally incorporated as an improvement district. Geologist Franc Joubin and American financier Joseph Hirshhorn were instrumental in its founding. The principal mining companies were Denison Mines and Rio Algom. The population has varied with several boom-and-bust cycles from the 1950s to the 1990s, from a high of over 26,000 to a low of about 6,600.

In 1959, the United States declared that it would buy no more uranium from Canada after 1962. During the 1970s, federal plans for CANDU Reactors and Ontario Hydro's interest in atomic energy led the town, anticipating a population of 30,000, to expand again. However, by the early 1990s depleted reserves and low prices caused the last mines in the area to close.

Elliot Lake was incorporated as a city in 1990. In the years since, the city looked elsewhere for its survival, finding some success promoting itself as a retirement community and tourist destination. In the late 2000s, mineral exploration began taking place in the area, with at least one new mine under preliminary development by start-up miner Pele Mountain Resources.