The Young-Davidson mine is a gold mine near Matachewan, Ontario in the Kirkland Lake area. It is one of the largest underground gold mines in Canada.
It exists in close proximity to the Matachewan Consolidated mine and is owned by Alamos Gold.
The site of the mine borders the Matachewan Consolidated mine on the west. [1] It is located near the settlements of Dubreuilville, [2] three kilometres west of Matachewan, [3] [4] sixty kilometres west of Kirkland Lake, Ontario, [2] and approximately 100 kilometres southeast of Timmins. [5]
The mine is within the district of Timiskaping. [6]
The mine is one of the largest underground gold mines in Canada. [2]
Gold prospecting started near Matachewan since silver was discovered near Elk Lake in 1906. [6] Jake Davidson found gold in Davidson Creek in 1916 in what would later become the Young-Davidson mine. [6] In 1917, trenches and shallow cuts were created in the surface rock where more gold was discovered. [1] Soon afterwards, Sam Otisse discovered gold while prospecting claims on land what later came under the ownership of Matachewan Consolidated Mine Ltd. [6]
In 1920, the Davidson Gold Mining Company Limited managed the site and employed 55 men. [1] The purchase of several adjoining properties in 1920 increase the site to 600 acres. [1] The mine was primarily explored by Porcupine Goldfields Development and Finance Company [6] and managed by N. J. Evered. [1]
Nothing significant occurred at the mines from 1924 until January 1934 when the price of gold started to rise. [6] In 1934, Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines Ltd, after sampling the Young-Davidson site, built an ore processing mill; it started processing ore on September 8 and was able to process 500 tons per day. [6]
Weldy Young was a part owner of the mine until his death in 1944. [7]
Along with the neighbouring Matchewan Consolidated Mines a total of 956,117 ounces of gold and 165,598 ounces of silver was produced between 1934 and 1957 - worth $34,688,256 at the time. [6] The mine closed in 1957. [6]
Vancouver based company Northgate Minerals bough the Young-Davidson in 2005, [4] and mining was restarted on September 10, 2010 [8] [4] In 2011, AuRico Gold bought Northgate and therefore the mine. [9] AuRico Gold merged with Alamos Gold in 2015. [9] [10] In 2021, the mine produced 140,900 ounces of gold, generating $53.1 million of revenue for its owners. [10]
A contracted worker fell four metres at the mine on January 27, 2021, resulting in Cementation Canada receiving a fine of $110,000. [3] Mine worker Shane Allison (52) was struck by a vehicle [5] and killed on November 29, 2022 [2] [11] Alamos Gold were issued with one requirement and three orders by the Ontario Ministry of Labour after the fatality. [2] Miners are not unionised. [11]
Kirkland Lake is a town and municipality in Timiskaming District of Northeastern Ontario. The 2016 population, according to Statistics Canada, was 7,981.
Cobalt is a town in Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada. It had a population of 1,118 at the 2016 Census. The population is now closer to 943.
Larder Lake is an incorporated municipal township and eponymous constituent dispersed rural community in Timiskaming District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is located along Ontario Highway 66 and Ontario Highway 624 at the north-western part of the lake bearing the same name. The area of the township is 229.65 km2 (88.67 sq mi) and includes the geographic townships of Hearst, McVittie and Skead.
McGarry is an incorporated township in Timiskaming District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It includes the communities of Virginiatown, North Virginiatown, and Kearns. The township borders with Quebec to the east, along Highway 66 between Kirkland Lake and Rouyn-Noranda. The northern border of the township forms part of the border between Timiskaming District and Cochrane District. Highway 66 was rerouted in 2017 because of concerns that aging mine shafts under the road could cause it to collapse.
Greenstone is a single-tier municipality in the Canadian province of Ontario with a population of 4,636 according to the 2016 Canadian census. It stretches along Highway 11 from Lake Nipigon to Longlac and covers 2,767.19 km2 (1,068.42 sq mi).
Unorganized Thunder Bay District is an unorganized area in northwestern Ontario, Canada in Thunder Bay District. It comprises all parts of the district that are not part of an incorporated municipality or a First Nations reserve.
Red Lake is a municipality with town status in the Canadian province of Ontario, located 535 km (332 mi) northwest of Thunder Bay and less than 100 km (62 mi) from the Manitoba border. The municipality consists of six small communities—Balmertown, Cochenour, Madsen, McKenzie Island, Red Lake and Starratt-Olsen—and had a population of 4,107 people in the Canada 2016 Census.
King's Highway 66, commonly referred to as Highway 66, is a provincially-maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. Located in the Timiskaming District, the highway begins at Matachewan near a junction with Highway 65. It extends eastward for 107.0 kilometres (66.5 mi) to the Quebec boundary just east of Kearns. At the provincial boundary, the highway continues eastward as Route 117. From Highway 11 at Kenogami Lake eastwards to the Quebec boundary, Highway 66 is designated as part of the Trans-Canada Highway.
Matachewan is a township in Timiskaming, Northeastern Ontario, Canada, located at the end of Ontario Highway 66 along the Montreal River. The name is derived from the Cree word for "meeting of the currents".
The Porcupine Gold Rush was a gold rush that took place in Northern Ontario starting in 1909 and developing fully by 1911. A combination of the hard rock of the Canadian Shield and the rapid capitalization of mining meant that smaller companies and single-man operations could not effectively mine the area, as opposed to earlier rushes where the gold could be extracted through placer mining techniques. Although a number of prospectors made their fortune, operations in the area are marked largely by the development of larger mining companies, and most people involved in the mining operations were their employees.
The Cobalt silver rush was a silver rush in Ontario, Canada that began in 1903 when huge veins of silver were discovered by workers on the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (T&NO) near the Mile 103 post. By 1905 a full-scale silver rush was underway, and the town of Cobalt, Ontario sprang up to serve as its hub. By 1908 Cobalt produced 9% of the world's silver, and in 1911 produced 31,507,791 ounces of silver. However, the good ore ran out fairly rapidly, and most of the mines were closed by the 1930s. There were several small revivals over the years, notably in World War II and again in the 1950s, but both petered out and today there is no active mining in the area. In total, the Cobalt area mines produced 460 million ounces of silver.
The Abitibi gold belt is a region of Canada that extends from Wawa, Ontario to Val-d'Or, Quebec. Located within the mineral-rich Abitibi greenstone belt, the gold belt is an established gold mining district having produced over 100 mines, and 170 million ounces of gold since 1901. Timmins, a town founded in 1912 following the Porcupine Gold Rush and subsequent creation of the Hollinger Mines, McIntyre Mines and Dome Mine, which was one area in the region that experienced a gold rush, beginning in 1909. The Kerr Addison Mine in Virginiatown was at one time Canada's largest gold producing mine. Many of the towns readily acknowledge gold mining as part of their history, some being named after gold. One of Canada's 'large roadside attractions' is a 12-foot replica of a 1908 gold sovereign built to commemorate Canada's first gold coin which was made using gold from the Kerr Addison owned Kerr-Addison mine.
AuRico Gold was an intermediate gold mining and exploration company that, until August 2011, operated only in Mexico. It reached intermediate gold producer status in August 2011 when Northgate Minerals agreed to be taken over for C$1.46 billion. Gammon Gold was an exploration company until 2004 when it started producing for the first time. Assets also include silver and copper.
Karl Brooks Heisey was a Canadian mining engineer and mining executive in the 1930s. Heisey pioneered the exploration and development of the Sanshaw/Red Lake metal deposits located in northwest Ontario. The Red Lake Mine is one of the richest gold mines in the world, still in production today with annual production of 600,000 ounces gold and over 11 million ounces produced to date.
Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. was a Canadian gold mining company, based in Toronto, that owned and operated several gold mines in Canada and Australia.
Alamos Gold Inc. ("Alamos") is a Canadian multinational gold producer, headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Alamos operates three mines across North America, and has six further projects in development.
The Detour Lake mine property contains the mineral rights to a large area, approximately 235 km2 (91 sq mi), in northeastern Ontario, near the Quebec border, approximately 185 km (115 mi) northeast of Cochrane, Ontario, or 260 km (160 mi) northeast of Timmins, Ontario. In 1979, rights-holder Amoco Canada Petroleum agreed with Dome Mines and Campbell Red Lake Mines Ltd. to explore and develop the mineral resources. In 2019, Detour Gold – the former operating company of the mine – was acquired by Kirkland Lake Gold.
Kerr Addison Mines Ltd was a Toronto-based mining and gas company that owned various mines throughout Canada, including the Agnew Lake Mine, the Kerr-Addison Mine and Chesterville gold mine.
The Kerr–Addison Mine is an abandoned Canadian gold mine in the Kearns area of McGarry, Ontario. In 1960, the mine was the largest producer of gold in North America. The mine produced the second most gold overall in North America, with the Homestake Mine being the leader.
The Matachewan Consolidated mine is a former gold mine near Matachewan, Ontario, Canada, in the Kirkland Lake area.