Eldorado Mining and Refining

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Eldorado Resources
Formerly
    • Eldorado Gold Mines
    • Eldorado Mining and Refining
    • Eldorado Nuclear
Crown corporation
Industry Mining
FateMerged with Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation
Successors
Founded1927 (1927)
Defunct1988 (1988)
Key people
Owner Government of Canada

The Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited company was originally organized in 1927 as Eldorado Gold Mines Limited to develop a gold mine in Manitoba. Its president Gilbert LaBine later found radioactive deposits at Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories in 1930, which led to the development of the Eldorado Mine at Port Radium. They built a state-of-the-art refinery in Port Hope, Ontario in 1933. Radium production took place between 1933 and 1940 when World War II closed European markets for radium material. The other byproduct of the company was silver, copper, and uranium salts. Uranium was useless until scientists realized the enormous energy potential of the uranium atom. The company reopened the mine at Port Radium in 1942 to supply the United States military with uranium products. The Canadian Government took over the company by purchasing share control in 1943, and in early 1944 the name was changed to Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited.

Contents

In mid-1943 the District Engineer of the Manhattan Engineer District, Lt-Col Kenneth Nichols had several queries from Canada relating to contracts Canadian firms Eldorado Gold Mines and Consolidated Mining and Smelting (CMS) had for the secret atomic bomb project; CMS or Cominco was building a heavy water plant at Trail, British Columbia and Eldorado was mining and processing uranium ore. He phoned C. D. Howe in Ottawa and arranged to travel on the overnight train to Ottawa and see Howe the next day (June 14). On arriving at the address given Nichols was surprised to find that Howe was the minister of munitions and supply, and found him most friendly. Howe was told about the Manhattan Project, and Nichols was told that Eldorado was now a Crown company. [1]

The Crown corporation held a monopoly on uranium prospecting and development in Canada until 1948. [2] Together with a discovery of the Port Radium deposits, the Eldorado company opened the Beaverlodge Mine at Uranium City, Saskatchewan. It entered production in 1953. In the 1960s the nature of sales changed when the United States military ceased purchasing of Canadian uranium ores for the purpose of atomic weapons, and from then on uranium was produced for power plants. During this period the name of the company was changed to Eldorado Nuclear Limited, with Eldorado Aviation Limited operating flights to Port Radium. In 1988 most of the assets of Eldorado were merged with assets of the Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation to create Cameco Corporation. The remediation of some mining sites and low-level nuclear waste continue to be overseen by the Government of Canada through Canada Eldor Inc., a subsidiary of the Canada Development Investment Corporation.

The Eldorado corporate records are housed in the National Archives of Canada.

Port Hope, Ontario

Port Hope has the largest volume of historic low-level radioactive wastes in Canada, created by Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited and its private sector predecessors. [3] By 2010 when it was projected that it would cost well over a billion dollars for the soil remediation project of the brownfield, it was the largest such cleanup in Canadian history. The effort is projected to be complete in 2022. [4] According to their 2014 report, the Canadian Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) noted that the liability for the Port Hope, Ontario contaminated site was $1 billion, whereas the Big Five other polluters (namely Faro mine, Colomac mine, Giant mine, Cape Dyer-DEW line, Goose Bay Air Base) had a combined liability of $1.8 billion. [5]

Former mine sites (partial list)

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Uranium City Northern settlement in Saskatchewan, Canada

Uranium City is a northern settlement in Saskatchewan, Canada. Located on the northern shores of Lake Athabasca near the border of the Northwest Territories, it is 230 m (750 ft) above sea level. The settlement is 760 km (470 mi) northwest of Prince Albert, 760 km (470 mi) northeast of Edmonton and 48 km (30 mi) south of the Northwest Territories-Saskatchewan boundary. For census purposes, it is located within the province's Division No. 18 territory.

Port Radium human settlement in Northwest Territories, Canada

Port Radium is a mining area on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada. It included the settlement of Cameron Bay and the Eldorado Mine and Echo Bay Mine. The name Port Radium did not come into use until 1936 and at the time it was in reference to the region as a whole. The Eldorado mine site at LaBine Point adopted the name for its settlement in the 1940s and it has generally stuck.

Gilbert LaBine, OC was a Canadian prospector who, in 1930, discovered radium and uranium deposits at Port Radium, Northwest Territories. He has become known as the father of Canada's uranium industry. LaBine was president of Eldorado Mining and Refining from its start in the late 1920s to 1947. He left the company to prospect for uranium minerals as an independent mine developer. In the 1950s he brought the Gunnar Mine to production at Uranium City, Saskatchewan.

Rayrock Mine

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Eldorado Mine (Northwest Territories) radium and uranium mine in Canada

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Northern Transportation Company

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The Eldorado Mine, also referred to as the Beaverlodge Operation was a uranium mine in the community of Eldorado, northern Saskatchewan, Canada. Eldorado was a small community 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) east of the community of Uranium City, Saskatchewan in the Beaverlodge Uranium District built by Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited to house the workforce and families of the mine.

Eldorado, Saskatchewan Ghost Town in Saskatchewan, Canada

Eldorado was a mining town located on Beaverlodge Lake in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. The original name was Beaverlodge. Originally established by the Eldorado Mining and Refining company, the town was later displaced by Uranium City. It housed miners, company families and related workers. A one-room school looked after elementary students up to grade six, after which students were bussed to Uranium City. Eldorado had its own air service of DC-3s and DC-4s, which supplemented commercial air service by Pacific Western Airlines. Air was the accepted mode of travel to and from Eldorado and Uranium City. The nearby Beaverlodge Mine was in operation from 1953 until 1982. Eldorado and Uranium City are along Saskatchewan Highway 962, an isolated stretch of highway.

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<i>Radium Queen</i> (ship)

The Radium Queen and her sister ship the Radium King were built in Sorel, Quebec in 1937, for the Northern Transportation Company, a subsidiary of Eldorado Gold Mines. The Radium Queen was a cargo/tug ship that served on the Slave River. It made runs between Lake Athabaska and Great Slave Lake is generally navigable. The Radium Queen towed barges from the railhead at Waterways, Alberta to a portage around the rapids. Cargo was unloaded there and transported by land, and loaded on barges on the lower river that were towed by the Radium King, and later by other tugboats, like the Radium Charles, Radium Express and Radium Yellowknife.

Eldorado Radium Silver Express

The Eldorado Radium Silver Express was the name of a semi-regular air service between Edmonton, Alberta and Port Radium, Northwest Territories, or between Port Radium and a refinery at Port Hope, Ontario. A single airplane, a Bellanca Aircruiser, a small bush plane, provided this service, from 1935 to 1947.

References

  1. Nichols, Kenneth (1987). The Road to Trinity. New York: William Morrow. ISBN   068806910X.pp97-98
  2. McBain, Lesley (2006). "Uranium City". Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
  3. "Port Hope Area Initiative". Archived from the original on August 20, 2009. Retrieved January 13, 2009.
  4. Carola Vyhnak (November 9, 2010). "Port Hope properties tested for radiation" . Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  5. Rod Story, Tolga Yalkin (10 April 2014). "Federal Contaminated Sites Cost" (PDF). Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO). Ottawa, Ontario. p. 41. Retrieved 5 September 2015.