Some lode gold has been mined in the Klondike and
Carmacks districts. In the Klondike, several prospects
have been worked at the heads of the placer creeks, the
most important being the Lone Star mine between Bonanza
and Eldorado Creeks. In 1930, a lode gold find was made
on the Cariboo Creek property on Freegold Mountain in
the Carmacks district, and in 1938 a 2-ton mill was installed.
A bar of 84 ounces of crude gold was produced from 14
tons of ore. The deposit consisted of a great number
of small quartz veins with fine gold visible everywhere.
The veins persisted only a few feet below surface, and late
in 1938 the property was abandoned.

In 1937, a 10-ton mill was built on the Brown Fairclough
property in the Carmacks district but was closed after
only a few days’ operation. In 1938, the mill was moved
to a new site and enlarged to treat the ore of the adjacent
Laforma claims. The deposit on the latter property
occurs in quartz and sulphides occupying a sheared and
fractured zone in granodiorite. During 1939, mill heads
averaged 1:46 ounces of gold per ton. After producing
1,437 ounces of gold, the mine was closed in June, 1940,
partly through lack of sufficient high-grade ore to meet
expenses and partly through disagreement between owners
and management.

During the late 1930's, mining was carried out in a
modest way on the Arctic group of claims in the Mayo
area. About 400 tons of ore averaging 215 ounces of silver
per ton and 66 per cent lead were sacked and shipped. In

addition, a considerable tonnage of ore on the dump averaged
100 ounces of silver per ton.

Apart from those mentioned, lode discoveries have
been made in many localities in Yukon. Several large
veins containing antimony occur in the Wheaton River
area, but no deposit of commercial grade has been found.
A few thousand pounds of tungsten concentrate were
shipped in 1918 from Dublin Gulch in the Mayo district
and from Canadian Creek in the Klotassin River area.
Veins and contact metamorphic deposits of tungsten:

bearing minerals have been found near Dublin Gulch and

near the head of Highet Creek. In 1943, a deposit assaying
up to 1-53 per cent tin was discovered on the north side

of Dublin Gulch.

Northwest Territories —Lode mining in the Northwest
Territories has been confined to that part lying northeast
of the Mackenzie River, more particularly to the areas
near the east end of Great Bear Lake, and north of Great
Slave Lake in the vicinity of Yellowknife Bay, Beaulieu
River, and Gordon Lake. Gold occurrences are the most
numerous, but deposits of many other metals are known.
After the discovery of gold on the Klondike in 1896, a
little prospecting was done by prospectors on their way to
the Yukon. Several mining companies prospected near
Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake in 1928-29, but with-
out much success. In 1930, silver and pitchblende were
discovered by Gilbert LaBine on the east shore of Great

[32 }

Bear Lake. Since 1935, following the discovery of gold
by a Geological Survey party along the west shore of
Yellowknife Bay, activity has centred in the Yellowknife area.

The western boundary of the Canadian Shield crosses
the Northwest Territories in a northwest direction. It
extends from Fort Smith, on the Alberta boundary, passes
through Fort Rae on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake,
and strikes northwestward to McTavish Arm of Great
Bear Lake. Nearly all the known lode deposits lie just
within the Shield east of the boundary. These deposits
include gold, radium, uranium, silver, copper, lead, zinc,
tungsten, iron, and other metals. Sulphide replacement -
deposits of copper, lead, and zinc were found near granite
at Turnback Lake in the Beaulieu River area. Copper
deposits occur near Hunter Bay of Great Bear Lake and in
the Coppermine River—Arctic Coast area near Coppermine
River and Dismal Lakes on Bathurst Inlet. At Hunter
Bay, the deposits occur as bornite, chalcopyrite, and
chalcocite in large quartz veins. In the other localities,
the copper is present as native copper in massive basalt,
and in the same rock as bornite, chalcocite, covellite, and
chalcopyrite, with quartz and carbonate minerals in shear
and fracture zones. Lead and zinc replacement deposits
occur in Devonian dolomite near Pine Point on Great Slave
Lake, and considerable work has been done on them.
The principal metallic minerals are galena, sphalerite, and
pyrite. The deposits appear to be high in grade and large
in tonnage. Sedimentary iron deposits containing specu-
larite and oolitic hematite occur on islands in Great Slave
Lake. A bed of hematite 20 feet thick was found in
Paleozoic rocks about 20 miles east of Wrigley on the
Mackenzie River. Of the lode deposits in the Territories,
gold, silver, and pitchblende are the only ones that have so
far achieved commercial production.

The first metal mine in the Territories started production
late in 1933, when a mill was placed in operation on the
LaBine pitchblende-silver deposit of Eldorado Gold Mines,
Ltd. The deposit contains only a little silver and is associ-
ated with brownish quartz in highly altered and sheared
siliceous sediments and feldspar porphyries. By the end
of 1939, about 126,370 tons of ore had been milled, and the
estimated value of the concentrate produced was $7,639,764.
Because of the accumulation of concentrate at the company’s
refinery at Port Hope, Ontario, mining was discontinued
in June, 1940, at which time concentrate on hand was esti-
mated to be sufficient for three to four years’ operations in the
refinery. In January, 1944, because of the vital importance
of uranium in the development of the atomic bomb, the
company was expropriated by the Dominion Government
and converted into a Crown corporation. In December,

1939, four years’ ore reserves, valued at $8,886,386, were
reported.

Between 1936 and 1939, silver concentrate was produced
near the Eldorado mine by Bear Exploration and Radium,
Ltd. At the latter property, veins of quartz and carbonate,