Giant Mine
Giant Mine
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| Location | |
|---|---|
| Territory | Northwest Territories |
| Country | Canada |
| Coordinates | 62°29′59″N 114°21′31″W / 62.49972°N 114.35861°WCoordinates: 62°29′59″N 114°21′31″W / 62.49972°N 114.35861°W |
| History | |
| Opened | 1948 |
| Closed | 2004 |
| Owner | |
| Company | Miramar Mining Corporation |
| Year of acquisition | 1999 |
The Giant Mine was a gold mine located on the Ingraham Trail, 5 km (3.1 mi) north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Giant Mine is within the Kam Group, which is part of the Yellowknife greenstone belt. Gold was discovered on the property in 1935 by Johnny Baker, but the true extent of the gold deposits were not known until 1944 when a massive gold-bearing shear zone was uncovered beneath the drift-filled Baker Creek Valley.
The discovery led to a massive post-war staking boom in Yellowknife. Giant Mine entered production in 1948 and ceased operations in 2004. It produced over 7,000,000 ozt (220,000 kg) of gold. Owners of the mine have included Falconbridge (1948-1986 through subsidiary Giant Yellowknife Mines Limited), Pamour of Australia (1986-1990 through subsidiary Giant Yellowknife Mines Limited), Royal Oak Mines (1990–1999), and Miramar Mining Corporation (1999–2004). When Royal Oak went bankrupt in 1999 the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) took over responsibility for cleaning up the Giant mine site.
According to an article published in The Star in 2006, there were 15 storage chambers a total of 237,000 t (233,000 long tons; 261,000 short tons)tonnes of deadly arsenic trioxide dust, the lethal byproduct of extracting gold from the mineral arsenopyrite ore, In 2006 underground flooding around Giant Mine's Mill Pond's underground chamber which contained 16,946 t (16,678 long tons; 18,680 short tons) tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust threatened to dump large amounts of arsenic into Yellowknife Bay.
The Northwest Territories' first mining museum is to be built on the old property. The N.W.T. Mining Heritage Society is in charge of the work.
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