Hollinger Mines

The Hollinger Gold Mine was founded by Benny Hollinger in Timmins, Ontario, and in 1910 the company was incorporated by Noah Timmins and partners. The main Hollinger Mine operated from 1910 until 1968. During that period 65,778,234 tons were milled, producing 19,327,691 ounces of gold, indicating an overall grade of 0.29. The value of the gold produced is placed at $564.7 million.

Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines was later acquired by Canadian tycoon E. P. Taylor's Argus Corporation. Argus was later acquired by Conrad Black in 1978 and it would become today's Hollinger Incorporated.

Rumors of gold in the Porcupine area had been circulating for some time, but every attempt to start production had resulted in poor returns. In June 1909 a group of prospectors found a rich vein that would eventually become the Dome Mine, but at the time it too remained undeveloped.

However the news was now out, and prospectors started flowing into the area, resulting in the Porcupine Gold Rush.

In 1909 Benny Hollinger, a young barber from Haileybury, and his partner, Alex Gillies, started prospecting in the area. When they met the Wilson expedition they were told that all the good lots were staked for at least 4 miles (6.4 km) west. So they went west, past the already staked-out claims, until they came upon an abandoned test pit near Pearl Lake where Reuben D'Aigle had given up three years earlier. The two were exploring the site when Hollinger dug into a mound that demonstrated how unlucky D'Aigle was:

... Benny was pulling moss off the rocks a few feet away, when suddenly he let a roar out of him and threw his hat to me. At first I thought that he was crazy but when I came over to where he was it was not hard to find the reason. The quartz where he had taken off the moss looked as though someone had dripped a candle along it, but instead of wax it was gold.

They staked twelve claims near their discovery. Because different sponsors had staked them, they flipped a coin to determine how to divide them. Hollinger won the toss and took the higher ground.

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Wikipedia