The federal team tasked with cleaning up the old Giant Mine site on the outskirts of Yellowknife says there’s no plans to salvage any of the buildings, but they’re open to suggestions from the public on the issue.
The mine produced more than 200,000 kilograms of gold during its more than 50 years in operation. But it’s sat idle since 2004 after the old owners left, and now it’s up to the federal government-funded team to clean up the mess.
Over the next few years, crews will dismantle the familiar silhouette of the mine’s wooden “C” headframe. That needs to go so they can seal off the mine shaft below. The plan to remove all the buildings, many of them are laden with asbestos and other contaminated materials.
Once that happens, there won’t be much evidence that anything was ever there. “It won’t be so obvious to them. In 20, 30 years, it’ll just be a cleaned up site,” N.W.T. Mining Heritage Society president Walt Humphries says. “They won’t have much to remember.”
For some, Giant Mine’s place in the city may already be fading into the past. “I got a son working in the mines up north… but I didn’t have no connection to this mine,” says resident Pearl Slade.