Appendix C - Part 2.

For brevity names of persons are given in full only where first introduced. Also, company names may be in their present form after the first introduction regardless of whether the name was in use in this form at that time; e.g., Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Ltd. is given as Cominco.

July. - Pitchblende is discovered 2 miles east of Goldfields on the Nicholson property (of the Mineral Belt Locators Syndicate, with Joseph Errington as manager) when exploring for gold. Prospectors, familiar with pitchblende after the 1930 discovery at Great Bear Lake, recognize the mineral in rocks of the Tazin Group. The find attracts little attention, uranium then being of minor significance. Two specimens are collected by Alcock and sent to the GSC in Ottawa, where H.V. Ellsworth determines the mineral to be pitchblende. Because little gold was found, the Nicholson property remained closed until 1949.

Underground exploration work starts at the Box Mine with the sinking of the No. 1 shaft.

September. - Sinking of No. 2 shaft starts on the Box property.

Autumn. - Gold is discovered in quartz veins at the Narrows, on the north shore of Lake Athabasca, 70 miles to the east of Goldfields.

1935-1936: - Considerable exploration takes place in the Pine Channel area leading to several gold discoveries on Thompson Island (formerly known as Channel Island) and on the mainland in the vicinity of Sucker and Algold Bays. J. G. Hebden and P. Daigle actively prospect the area. Companies also exploring include Cominco, Athona Mines Limited, Sterling Collieries, Prospectors Airways, and Ceres Explorations Limited.

1935-1936: - Flin Flon Gold Mining Syndicate, Limited sinks a vertical shaft and 1937: starts extensive underground development on the east shore of Douglas Lake.

1935-1939: - On the Lucky-Willy groups, 2 miles east of Lodge Bay, Lake Athabasca, 1939: Athona Mines performs extensive diamond drilling, shaft sinking, and underground development, which reveals a large tonnage of low-grade ore. Operations discontinue in 1939 due to financial problems.

Monarch Gold Miners Syndicate produces 736 ounces of gold from 2,047 tons of milled ore from the Prince Albert deposit.

1936: - Goldfields, now incorporated as a village, has 1,000 inhabitants.

R.C. McMurchy investigates the Rottenstone Lake deposit for the GSC.

J.W. Ambrose (GSC) publishes his ideas on progressive kinetic metamorphism in the Missi Series, near Flin Flon.

Monarch Gold Miners Syndicate acquires the Prince Albert Gold Mines Ltd. property at northwestern Amisk Lake. The shaft is deepened to 115 feet, two levels are established, and a 25-ton mill is installed.

Henning-Maloney Gold Mines Ltd., discovers gold on the Reo (now Rio) claim, 0.75 km southwest of Douglas Lake, approximately 600 m north of the No. 1 (or shaft) vein. Trenching indicates mineralization over a length of 900 m. The main showing gives average values of $12 gold per ton over a 1.2 m width for a length of 60 m.

Alcock mentions in a report the occurrence of uranium discovered the year before at the Nicholson Mine on the north shore of Lake Athabasca.

Flin Flon Gold Mining Syndicate, Limited, is renamed Flin Flon Gold Mines Ltd.

1937: - Flin Flon Gold Mines Ltd. sinks a two-compartment vertical shaft on the Tikkanen property to a depth of 405 feet with levels at 125, 225, 325, and 440 feet.

Stope development starts at the Box Mine. Plans are made for the development of water power and the construction of a 1,000-ton-per-day mill. Water supply for a hydroelectric power plant, capable of developing 6,000 h.p., is obtained by diverting water from Tazin Lake through a chain of lakes to the chosen site on Wellington River, 35 miles from the mine. A power unit of 3,300 h.p. is installed and a transmission line to the mine site is constructed.

Goldfields now have a hotel, radio station, and several stores and dwellings. One of the advantages of the Goldfields deposits compared to other Canadian gold mining camps is the seasonably cheap transportation to Edmonton: 300 miles by rail from Edmonton to Waterways, 140 miles down the Athabasca River, then 90 miles along Lake Athabasca by barges and tugs.

Spring. - Following suggestions made by Mawdsley in his report on the 1931 reconnaissance of the area, prospector Adolph Studer (who had been prospecting in the area since 1923) finds a small, but rich, gold-bearing quartz vein at Sulphide Lake, approximately 8 miles northeast of Waden Bay, Lac la Ronge. The find was staked as the "Discovery". The find sparked a small gold rush and hundreds of claims were staked from Lynx River at Waden Bay north to McKay Lake, but little or no development work was done.

Summer. - Fieldwork for GSC by Sproule, assisted by Jack Chambers, in the Cree Lake area. John Maher accompanied the party as a labourer.

1937-1942: - Several small gold properties, notably the Henning-Maloney, Graham, and Monarch properties, give small yields of gold in the Amisk Lake area.

1938: - Gold is discovered at various points along 9 miles of a narrow, northeast-trending volcanic belt to the northwest of Lac la Ronge. Caldwell discovers gold at Preview Lake. Hebden and J. Bell works these finds and the Socko-Tyon showing at Hebden Lake. At MacKay Lake, approximately 6.5 km west of the main La Ronge gold-bearing belt, E.Crull discovers gold (Eureka showing) which is located at the southern end of Heyer Bay, MacKay Lake, about 19 km northeast of Waden Bay, Lac la Ronge. George Gillies finds gold just west of PAP Lake. An area east of Lynx Lake is staked by B. Lien as the Pelican (later Gem) claims.

Pamon Gold Mines Limited is formed and conducts mining operations on Prince Albert (Monarch) Mine property. The shaft is deepened to 225 feet and ore is shipped to the H.B.M.&S. smelter in Flin Flon. Total production between 1937 and 1942 netted 4,882 ounces of gold and 837 ounces of silver from 5,822 tons of ore.

July. - At the Box Mine stope development shows grades lower than estimated. Because extensive financing was still required to complete hydroelectric power and mill construction, underground work stopped and an extensive diamond drilling campaign starts. A recalculation of ore reserves shows that the mine is profitable and construction resumes.

Summer. - Active development of the La Ronge gold belt begins. Studer's S and 0 claim in the Sulphide Lake area is exposed by several trenches; some gold was mined from an open pit by sluicing and a small mill was installed at the site, but production is unknown. This deposit was held in 1972 by Vern Studer of La Ronge but there has been no activity on it since 1949.

Also located this summer were the McKay (Eureka) prospect as well as the Lucky Strike and Dee 2 properties on Sulphide Lake, the latter two by Adolph Studer who also located the Arseno (or Main Camp) showing and by washing the gossan through a sluice box, recovered some gold.

1938-1940: - Significant gold discoveries in the La Ronge area are made in the vicinity of Lynx River, west of the southwest end of Sulphide Lake (Studer zones), west of PAP and Preview Lakes (PAP and Preview zones), and at Hebden Lake (Socko-Tyon). Prospectors most active in the area included Lien, Gillies, Caldwell, Hebden, and Bell, as well as A. Studer, J. Studer, and V. Studer.

1939: - Otto Hahn and co-workers, in Berlin, Germany, discover fission. Beginning of Trans-Canada air-mail service.

Cominco options the Preview and PAP zones and discovers extensions by 1,550 lineal feet of trenching and stripping. Caldwell's PAP shipped 0.5 tons of gold ore with a grade of 20 ounces of gold per ton for a total value of $355.

Flin Flon Gold Mines Ltd. ceases operation on the gold property at Douglas Lake. The deposit is acquired by Douglas Lake Mines Ltd.

Placer gold is being mined in the North Saskatchewan River at Frenchman Butte.

Sproule's paper on the Pleistocene geology of the Cree Lake region, published in the Transactions of the Royal Society, is the first to be based not only on ground examination but also on air photo interpretation.

June. - Operations at the Athona Mine cease the reasons given being that although sufficient development work had been done to bring a mine into production, no arrangements had been made for the treatment of the ore on a custom basis at Cominco's Box Mine, and no satisfactory source of power was available for the operation of a mine.

June 27: - The Box Mine, Goldfields, starts production at 1,000 tons per day and increases to 1,400 tons per day in 1940 after full power was available.

August 15. - The first gold brick is poured at the Box Mine. It weighed 75.5 pounds and was valued at $30,000. The mine had an ore grade of $4.80 per ton. The money spent on the mine to this time was estimated at $4,000,000. This included $1,500,000 spent on the power plant.

September 10. - Canada declares war on Germany.

December. - The Box Mine averages 1,209 tons of ore per day.

1940: - Metallic mineral production for the province exceeds $8,000,000 in value.

Prospectors J.B. Coffyne and J. Krauchi pan gold from Gossan on the Jojay property near Bog Lake, 4 miles west of Windrum Lake. The discovery initiated considerable staking in the area. Cominco, the most active company, staked several groups of claims and along with Coffyne, Krauchi, and L. Garski, discovered several gold showings throughout the Star-Waddy Lake area during 1940-1949.

Alfred Roddick Byers joins the staff of the Department of Geology, University of Saskatchewan.

The road from Prince Albert North now reaches the north end of Montreal Lake, lying on its east side.

Cominco options the Studer properties on Sulphide Lake and re-options the Preview Lake area ground but drops the option at year's end. Work included 495 cubic yards of trenching and 4,499 feet of diamond drilling.

At the Box Mine, the milling rate averages 1400 tons per day. Approximately 22,000 ounces of gold (value $762,764) are produced. Costs are cut to $1,558 per ton and a small operating profit of $59,000 is realized. The ore grade averages 0.0479 ounces ($1.676) per ton. Despite increased milling rates and a reduction in operating costs, the mine is only marginally profitable.

Ms. L. Lally stakes five patented claims (Golden Cross 1-4, and Harbinger) to cover the Blue Quartz gold showings located west of the north end of Amisk Lake which were among the earliest stakings in the Amisk Lake area.

Some gold is again produced from the Prince Albert property by Pamon Gold Mines Ltd., Amisk Lake: 4,147 ounces of gold from 3,775 tons of milled ore. The operation would cease in 1942.

Port Radium Mine, Great Bear Lake, of Eldorado Gold Mines Ltd. (Gilbert LaBine, President), closed. Water from the lake flows underground, fills the shaft, and freezes.

1940-1942: - Pamon Gold Mines Ltd. operates the Monarch Mine in the Amisk Lake area and produces a further 4147 ounces of gold.

1940-1945: - In the early 1940s, Studer's South Camp, and the "A", "B", "C", and "D" zones were found and explored in the Sulphide Lake area. Before 1945, the only formal adit in the La Ronge gold belt was opened on the Preview North lode. It was driven as a crosscut, normal to the vein, to explore gold values located by a horizontal diamond drill hole. Short drifts from the crosscut followed a weak, barren vein, and the headings were stopped. The adit was mucked by an air slusher and a 30-inch-wide scraper; these and the pressure tanks for the compressed air lie abandoned on the west shore of Preview Lake.

1941: - Henning-Maloney Mine no longer active. The headframe and large dumps remain at the mine site.

Joe Brain stakes what is to become the Flexar Mine, near Flin Flon as a gold property. H.B.M.& S. develops it for its copper content.

A mill with a capacity of 6 to 9 tons of ore per day is operated in the La Ronge area by Caldwell under the name Preview Gold Mines Ltd. It goes into production by shipping 10.13 tons of ore to Flin Flon. Grades of 0.24 ounces of silver and 2.48 ounces of gold per ton of ore give a net smelter value of the shipment of $650. The Preview Mine which had started in 1940 operated only about 18 months and closed on account of poor recovery rates and high shipping costs. A total of 14 tons of ore was shipped in three lots.

December. - A gold brick is poured at the Preview Mine.

1942: - Fire destroys the surface plant and shaft timber of Pamon Gold Mines, Ltd., which operated on the Prince Albert property at the northwest shore of Amisk Lake.

Frank Hollick, of Cominco, sends a specimen from the Box Mine to the GSC, where Ellsworth identifies it as thucholite, a uranium mineral.

Port Radium Mine re-opened at the request of the federal government to provide uranium to the Manhattan Project.

Adolph Studer sets up a Gibson Elliptic Mill at the outlet of Sulphide Lake. Work proceeds at the Preview property, with John Studer participating, but the project is closed in the fall.

May. - Operations at the Box Mine stop on account of low grade, mounting costs, and shortage of labour in war time. The mine had produced 64,066 ounces of gold from 1,418,320 tons of ore for a grade of 0.0452 ounces of gold per ton of ore.

August 15. - The Box Mine closes and Goldfields ceases to exist. Employees and their families are sent south by Canadian Pacific Airlines. Many buildings in Goldfields are now torn down and the lumber is being shipped to Fort McMurray, Alberta.

1943: - Trans-Canada Air Lines begins operation.

T.L. Tanton investigates the scheelite (tungsten) deposits of the Amisk Lake - Flin Flon area for the GSC and reports on them the next year in the annual report of the Saskatchewan Department of Natural Resources.

For military reasons, the federal government bans the staking and mining of radioactive minerals in the Northwest Territories. The provincial governments follow suit.

Newcor Mining and Refining Limited acquires the Douglas Lake property from Douglas Lake Mines Ltd., rehabilitates the surface workings, and de-waters the mine workings.

Northwest Gold Mining Syndicate Ltd. of Flin Flon develops the Lucky Strike Mine on a peninsula projecting south from the southeastern end of Missi Island. Work done consists of a pit, 12 feet deep, and six shallow cuts.

January 15. - H.B.M.& S. buys control of Mandy Mines Ltd. from Tonopah. Mining proceeded between April 1943 and December 1944 as a war measure. The ore being exhausted, H.B.M.&S. closes the Mandy Mine.

January 28. - The federal government expropriates Eldorado Gold Mines Ltd. under the War Measures Act and creates a federal crown corporation, Eldorado Mining and Refining Ltd. A total of $9,246,877 was paid for Eldorado including its wholly owned shipping and aviation subsidiary, Northern Transportation Ltd. Together with the GSC, Eldorado would now be responsible for ensuring the continuity of uranium supply through exploration and development. The first aerial radiation survey by and for Eldorado is undertaken in the Lake Athabasca area, during the summer.

1943: - Newcor builds a 200-ton-per-day mill and a 125-ton-per-day roasting 1947: plant at its Douglas Lake gold property. The mine operated briefly in 1947, producing an unknown amount of gold and arsenic.

1944: - Prospectors Coffyne and Garski discover gold mineralization on the east shore of Mallard Lake and stake the Jolu group of claims for Cominco.

Vern Hogg joins DNR as a geologist; J.L. Phelps is the Minister in charge.

1945: - Industrial Development Branch added to DNR.

Exploration for uranium starts in the Lake Athabasca area, but under strict federal control and in secrecy because the military uses of the metal make it a valuable and politically-sensitive commodity. Prospectors employed by Eldorado find several pitchblende occurrences on the north shore of the lake. The GSC starts to re-map the area in detail. To help prospectors, A.H. Lang, in later years, publishes several general summaries.

Re-opening of the Box Mine is considered but rejected.

In the Amisk Lake area, the Monarch Mine closes.

May 7. - Unconditional surrender of German Armed Forces.

July 16, 5:30 a.m. - The first atomic bomb exploded at Alamogordo Air Base in the New Mexico desert.

August 6. - Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

August 9.- Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

1946: - Mawdsley publishes a report on the Rottenstone Lake deposit, investigated by him in the previous year, for the GSC.

The Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) is set up by the federal government.

C.H. Stockwell does further detailed work in the Flin Flon area and Tanton continues to study the tungsten deposits of the area.

Hogg was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister of DNR.

Eric Partridge starts his career as a northern prospector and formed E.F. Partridge & Associates.

Approximately this year, 14 tons of high-grade ore are shipped from Caldwell's PAP Lake, "A" Zone North.

Studer's Dog River Mill operates at 2 tons per day with ore for the mill mined from the South Camp, Main Camp, and "C" Zone.

Prospecting is carried out in the Pine Channel area.

Geiger counters have been developed to the point that it is now possible to supply one instrument to each prospector in Eldorado's four prospecting teams, working on the north shore of Lake Athabasca. Eldorado acquires large blocks of claims in the Beaver-lodge area where pitchblende had been reported in 1935. About 1,000 occurrences are discovered through systematic exploration on the ground.

John Albrecht and Roy Tobey discover uranium on the shore of Black Lake, the site of the future Nisto Mine.

September. - The Ace claim, the main Beaverlodge uranium deposit, is staked for Eldorado by Einar Larum and Philip St. Louis. In the field, they recognized the economic potential of the area crossed by a large fault, which came to be known as the St. Louis Fault. For this discovery they were paid $2,500 each initially, with a further $19,000 to Larum and the same amount to the estate of St. Louis (d. circa 1950), resulting from the sale of non-radioactive minerals.

1946 - 1947: - H.B.M.&S. options the Studer "A" and "B" zones. A total of 14,000 feet of diamond drilling is done. Some ore is found but the option is dropped. Production at the Preview Gold Mines is given as 5 tons per day. A mill for this capacity was installed, the remains of which can still be seen on the west side of Preview Lake.

1947: - DNR's Mines Branch is expanded, reorganized and the name changed to Mineral Resources Branch. Hogg is appointed Deputy Minister. The Saskatchewan Geological Survey is inaugurated and under the direction of W. J. Bichan a regular mapping program is undertaken by permanent staff (M.E. Hriskevich and M.L. Miller) and University professors (Mawdsley and Byers) assisted by their students. Prospecting concessions (up to 500 square miles) are introduced. At Uranium City Ted Ellingham becomes the Resident Geologist.

A geological map covering the whole province on a scale of 1 inch to 20 miles is published by the GSC. In the Precambrian Shield of the Province, regional contributions to the geology shown on the map had been made by F.J. Alcock, C.C. Allen, H.C. Cooke, J.S. DeLury, G.M. Furnival, A.W. Joliffe, M.L. Keith, D.M.E. McLarty, R.C. McMurchy, J.C. Sproule, C.H. Stockwell, T.L. Tanton, L.J. Weeks, and J.F. Wright. The activities of the GSC were to continue, particularly in the northwestern part of Saskatchewan. After 1947, notable contributions to the Precambrian geology of Saskatchewan were made by the following GSC personnel: A.J. Baer, C.K. Bell, D.A.W. Blake, A.M. Christie, K.R. Dawson, G.E.P. Eastwood, W.F. Fahrig, M.J. Frarey, J.A. Fraser, W.E. Hale, J.M. Harrison, W.W. Heywood, S.N. Kesten, H.M.A. Rice, S.C. Robinson, and L.P. Tremblay.

AECB decides to permit and encourage private prospecting and mining for uranium by establishing a minimum price guaranteed for 5 years. This guarantee was later extended to 1958, and then to 1960. The lifting of the exploration ban and the guaranteed price caused a staking rush that resulted in thousands of staked claims in the late 1940s and the early 1950s.

The Duplex claims on the northwest shore of Amisk Lake are transferred to G.H. Yule and E. Hanes who are granted a lease. Exploration work comprises four trenches and 11 drill holes.

Newcor Mining and Refining Ltd. installs a 200-ton concentrator, a smelter, and refining equipment (for arsenic) at the Douglas Lake site. It was operated only between 1947 and 1948. Only the concrete foundations of the buildings remain on the site.

1948: - Prospecting for uranium ore on provincially held land, previously restricted to Eldorado, is opened to the public, first under permit agreements and then, after these expired, by claim staking which proceeded at a great pace. Eldorado starts to sink the Ace shaft to the uranium deposits on the St. Louis Fault. Eldorado is appointed Canada's agent for the purchase of all uranium produced in Canada and its sale to the United States Atomic Energy Commission and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. This remains in force until 1971.

J.H. Brockelbank follows Phelps as Minister of Natural Resources.

The townsite of Goldfields is revived.

Classes start at the Prospectors' School in La Ronge.

Pitchblende veins are discovered on the west shore of Black Lake and, when these are subsequently investigated by Nisto Mines Ltd., much prospecting activity follows.

Diamond drilling resumed at the Rottenstone Lake deposit and continues sporadically until 1962.

Byers commences mapping the Waddy Lake area for the Saskatchewan Geological Survey. His report is the first in a series of reports dealing with areas in the Precambrian Shield.

Cominco prospectors W. H. Bryenton and E. Lozo stake gold claims immediately northwest of Weedy Lake.

Newcor Mining and Refining Ltd. ceases operation at the Douglas Lake site.

W. Richardson and Len McArthur discover radioactive mineralization near the north shore of Lac la Ronge (west of the Montreal River). This sets off a prospecting rush which, in the mid-1950s, leads to the discovery of a deposit located near the southwest corner of Nistowiak Lake, a part of the Churchill River formerly used as a canoe route by early fur traders and explorers venturing to the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers. The deposit, approximately 4 miles east of Stanley Mission, was explored by La Ronge Uranium Mines Ltd. Numerous surface openings were made and a pilot mill was installed for testing purposes.

1949: - Radioactive pegmatites are found on the north shore of Black Lake and to the north of Charlebois Lake.

The Prospectors' Assistance Plan (PAP) is introduced to encourage exploration in the Precambrian Shield.

Robert B. Ford and Richard T. Claus, geology students from the University of Wisconsin, discover the Lee (Jahala) Lake uraninite-bearing pegmatite sill, located about 40 miles east-northeast of La Ronge, east of Hunter Bay and south of Nunn Lake.

Studer Mines Ltd. is incorporated to explore the Sulphide Lake properties. Production from the Sulphide Lake properties stopped and Studer's Dog River Mill was dismantled and removed. The remains of the mill consists of only a few rusting parts on the east side of the Dog River near the first portage north of Sulphide Lake.

On the west side of Amisk Lake, due west of Waverley Island, Wing Wong stakes a group of three claims which would be restaked in 1954 as the Rex claims.

W. Van drills one hole on the Sonora deposit, Amisk Lake area.

Partridge discovers the Kaslo occurrence at Narrow Lake, north of Windrum Lake. Cominco finds the Seabee showing at Leonil Lake, 55 km southeast of Windrum Lake.

Joe Bain of Flin Flon discovers a copper deposit at the north end of a small island in Birch Lake, about 10 miles southeast of Creighton.

The main headframe, No. 4 Zone, is built by Consolidated Nicholson Mines Ltd., to explore pitchblende first discovered in a 1935 drilling programme. Two levels are sunk at first with a third level sunk to 325 feet. Much lateral development is done but the work is suspended.

1950: - H.V. Ellsworth publishes the first radiometric age determinations on two samples from the Goldfields area. From this time on, many such dates will be published with contributions made by G.L. Cumming, W.R. Eckelmann, R.M. Farquhar, R.E. Folinsbee, J.L. Kulp, G.R. Lachance, R.Y.H. Rimsaite, S.C. Robinson, R.D. Russell, R.D. Stevens, R.K. Wallace and J. Tuzo Wilson.

Bain stakes the Flash group of gold claims just east of the north arm of Birch Lake.

Studer Mines drill two holes near the northern limits of the Galena and Studer A zones.

L. Parres drills one hole on the Sonora property, Amisk Lake area, and two short x-ray holes on Waverley Island.

LaBine resigns as President of Eldorado.

W.O. Kupsch joins the staff of the Department of Geology, University of Saskatchewan.

The 1950s: - The Pitching Lake deposit, known before 1924, is explored for copper. A pit measuring 78 feet by 65 feet and 20 feet deep, and a 42-foot shaft expose the original discovery at Hunter Falls on Drinking River at the south end of Pitching Lake, approximately 50 miles northeast of La Ronge. A 235-foot adit driven into another sulphide body 1.5 miles to the northeast is connected by a trail to the main deposit. Glenn Uranium Mines Ltd. was involved in the exploration programme.

1950: - Goldfields Uranium Mines Ltd. does some work on the old showings 1952: in the Pine Channel, Lake Athabasca area.

1951: - First practicable hydrogen bombs produced in the U.S.A.

Lapsed claims at Moose Point, Lac la Ronge, are acquired by Regina lawyer Morris Schumiatcher and his secretary (later, wife) Jacquie Katz.

A gravel road now reaches from Prince Albert to La Ronge.

Charlebois Lake Uranium Ltd. diamond drills uraninite-bearing pegmatite dike along a granite contact.

Dee Explorations Ltd. (Jim and Lew Parres) encounter a minor showing of autunite associated with regolith beneath the Athabasca Sandstone near Black Lake. This is the first discovery in the Athabasca Basin. More than a decade was to pass before prospecting for uranium became focused on the Athabasca Sandstone Basin.

March. - Work at the Ace Property has now assured Eldorado that a mine can be developed. The townsite of Uranium City is laid out and gradually supplants Goldfields. Development has reached the point where a 500-ton-per-day mill is warranted and plans are made to start production by 1953.

1952: - Construction of Uranium City by the provincial government, with the input of Eldorado, begins. The Municipality of Uranium City is established.

The Mining Corporation of Canada Limited discovers three gold showings near Wedge Lake. One of these would be diamond-drilled the next year.

Partridge makes a deal with Schumiatcher for the Moose Point claims which he sells to Technical Mine Consultants (owned by Joe Hirshhorn and Frank Joubin) which disposed of them to Anglo-Rouyn Mines, controlled by Rio Algom.

Preview Mine, in the Lac la Ronge area, closes.

The discovery of a copper deposit that was staked for H.B.M.&S. near the shore of Phil (McNally) Lake, about 16 miles southwest of Creighton, becomes the Coronation Mine. A shaft is sunk to a depth of 1,452 feet with nine levels.

H.B.M.&S. commences development of the Birch Lake Mine. A shaft is sunk to 1,647 feet with six levels.

Summer. - The bituminous sands in the till of the Peter Pond Lake area are investigated by Kupsch, who later travels north along the new La Loche Portage to the Clearwater River, which he descends by canoe.

July 2. - Albert Zeemel and Walter Blair, while prospecting for LaBine, discover uranium at Crackingstone Point, Lake Athabasca, which later would be developed as the Gunnar Mine (named after Gunnar Berg, an associate of LaBine).

August. - After concessions expire, general staking for uranium is opened.

Autumn and winter. - A sizeable staking rush for radioactive minerals in pegmatites develops in the Foster Lakes area, but none of the bodies investigated proves to be of ore grade.

Winter. - Almost all buildings that could be moved from Goldfields are hauled over the ice to Uranium City.

1953: - During the fiscal year 1953-54 a total of 15,671 mineral claims are staked, the highest ever recorded in a single year in Saskatchewan and more than double the previous record.

Mawdsley is awarded the Barlow Memorial Medal by the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy for his paper entitled Uraninite-bearing deposits, Charlebois Lake area, northeastern Saskatchewan.

The Saskatchewan Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), with Brockelbank as Minister and Hogg as Deputy Minister, is established and geological work is transferred from DNR. An airborne magnetometer survey for public use is sponsored for the first time by a provincial authority. A regular mapping program starts in the Precambrian Shield, to which through the following years contributions will be made by L.S. Beck, A.J. Budding, A.R. Byers, Brian Chadwick, A.K. Chakrabarti, R.L. Cheesman, G.L. Colborne, C.D.A. Dahlstrom, L.H. Forsythe, Edgar Froese, A.J. Gracie, R.L. Johnson, F.J. Johnston, W.G.Q. Johnston, S.J.T. Kirkland, Frits Koster, J.B. Mawdsley, P.L. Money, A. Morris, H.F. Morrow, W.A. Padgham, W.J. Pearson, M.W. Pyke, B.P. Scott, Roman Shklanka, and R.H. Wallis.

Development of the Gunnar mine and mill complex begins. Development of other orebodies in the Beaverlodge district also begins, including Cayzor Athabasca Mines, Lake Cinch Mines, National Exploration, Black Bay Uranium, and Lorado Uranium Mines.

June. - Production begins at Eldorado's Ace Mine, the first uranium produced in Saskatchewan.

1954: - Uranium City and district has a population of 4,000. Al Scarfe becomes the town's Mining Recorder.

A comprehensive report on the Amisk-Wildnest Lakes area by Byers and Dahlstrom becomes the most important reference to the area west of Flin Flon. Dahlstrom also publishes a paper on the statistical analysis of cylindrical folds, which leads the way to a new standard field technique.

The provincial government starts an airborne magnetic survey in the La Ronge area.

Jahala Lake Uranium Mines sinks a 120-foot inclined shaft into a pegmatite discovered in 1949.

J. McKenzie stakes the Rex gold claims on the west side of Amisk Lake. Development work consists of a small trench and two short drill holes.

October. - President Dwight Eisenhower, father of the "Atoms for Peace" plan, electronically sets off groundbreaking for the Duquesne Light Company's Shippingport nuclear power plant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1955: - Anglo-Rouyn Mines Ltd., sinks a 3-compartment vertical shaft to a depth of 800 feet. This property was first staked by Gordon and Richard Hall in 1915.

Start of airborne electromagnetic mapping by the provincial government; this program was to last until 1957.

Planning for the Hanson Lake road starts.

An unproductive occurrence of uranium is discovered on Stewart Island, near Uranium City, the second such deposit associated with the Athabasca Sandstone (see 1951).

The Choiceland iron ore deposit is staked by Milt MacDougall based on observation of erratic behaviour of magnetic compasses in airplanes when he was an instructor at the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, Prince Albert, during World War II. Lew Parres becomes involved in outlining the buried orebody by diamond-drilling.

Work resumes at the Nicholson Mine.

The Prospectors' Incentive Program is introduced.

September 9. - Gunnar Mine's 125 tons per day mill comes into production. It will later be expanded to 2,000 tons per day.

1956: - Jim Kermeen in his M.Sc. thesis (U. of S.) considers the autunite deposit near Black Lake, discovered in 1951, to be a secondary deposit formed by leaching of uranium by groundwaters from a primary source in nearby basement rocks.

The reactor vessel is installed in the Shippingport nuclear power plant.

In England, the Calder Hall nuclear power plant goes on line.

Anglo-Rouyn Mines sinks a vertical shaft to 544 feet on the Moose Point property. Stations are opened at 175 feet (1 Level), 280 feet (2 Level), 392 feet (3 Level), and 504 feet (4 Level). Lateral development of 2,603 feet is achieved before shut-down in December. On account of low prices for copper the mine will sit idle until 1965 when production starts.

1957: - James Cawley becomes Deputy Minister of DMR.

In La Ronge, a staking rush ensues after the release of airborne electromagnetic maps.

A geological division is established within the Saskatchewan Research Council.

In a publication by M.J.S. Innes of the Dominion Observatory, a meteorite-impact origin is suggested for Deep Bay, Reindeer Lake.

Eldorado mill expands to 2,000 tons per day.

Operations of the Nicholson Mine cease after about 12,000 tons of ore had been shipped to the Eldorado Mill.

As a result of airborne surveys, a metalliferous body is discovered beneath Hanson Lake. It was worked briefly for lead and zinc by underground methods in the mid-1960s by Western Nuclear Mines, which also erected a mill at the site. Operations ceased in 1967.

H. B. M. & S. starts production of Birch Lake Mine. From 1957 to 1960, a total of 300,800 tons of ore averaging 6.2 percent copper would be produced.

May. - Lorado Mining Company establishes a custom mill in the Beaverlodge area to process its ore and that of other small mines in the area.

December 18, 12:39 a.m. - The first electricity generated in the Shippingport nuclear power plant is released.

1958: - Westfield Minerals options part of the Studer holdings and stakes additional claims. After a geological mapping program, the option is dropped.

Partridge discovers the Komis gold deposit near Waddy Lake. Farther north, in the vicinity of Ramsland Lakes, H. and E. Wohlberg and E. Hird stake claims, also presumably on gold showings.

July. - Construction of the Hanson Lake road starts.

1958: - The Nicholson Mine is high-graded by KLK Mining Company which 1959: extracted another 2,000 tons. No more work was done after this.

1958: - W. Shupe and L. N. McArthur carry out work in the Galena zone, 1960: Lac la Ronge area.

1959: - A Soviet rocket reaches the moon.

Peak Canadian production of 31,000,000 lbs. U308 (yellowcake) attained. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, which had purchased 90 percent of all Canadian uranium under contracts to expire in 1962, announces that after the termination date, no more uranium would be bought. The United Kingdom also stops stockpiling. As a consequence, the market collapses.

A descriptive list of all known mineral occurrences in the Precambrian rocks of Saskatchewan, compiled by Les S. Beck, is published by DMR.

In the Amisk Lake - Flin Flon area, Hogg stakes a claim on a gold property. At this time gold sells at $35 per ounce.

1960: - H. B. M. & S. closes the Birch Lake Mine. The mine buildings are dismantled.

Hogg stakes the Hunt claims for Flin Flon Gold Mines Ltd. over the Rio claims, at Douglas Lake.

Production starts at the Coronation Mine. A railway is built by H.B.M.& S. to transport the ore to their plant at Flin Flon.

Waddy Lake Mines Ltd. is incorporated, under the sponsorship of Falconbridge Mines Ltd., to finance the exploration of the Komis deposit where extensive work was done during the following three years.

Studer Mines completes 646 feet of the diamond-drill hole on the "C" Zone and finds some ore.

The GSC initiates a cooperative study of the Coronation Mine and its environs with D.R.E. Whitmore acting as co-ordinator. In conjunction with this programme, the Geophysics Division of GSC conducts an airborne magnetic survey of the area.

Art Sjolander reports gold near Sand Lake, in the Karin Lake area, about 30 km due west of Cree Lake.

April. - Lorado mill closes after the small mines supplying it are unable to continue production. Eldorado buys out those contracts the mines are unable to fill. The closure of Lorado left only Eldorado and Gunnar as producing mines in Saskatchewan.

1960: - Contact Gold Mines acquires the Preview, PAP, and Clearwater "A" 1963: and "B" Zones and works them.

1960: - The value of metallic mineral production declines, mainly on account 1965: of cutbacks in the uranium industry. Regulations are amended to allow exploration companies to take out larger areas of ground under exclusive exploration rights.

1960: - Considerable work is carried out by Flin Flon Gold Mines Ltd. in 1979: Henning-Maloney and Rio deposits.

1961: - First space flight by Russia's Yuri Gagarin.

A three-year shared-cost Canada-Saskatchewan program is introduced to conduct airborne magnetometer-electromagnetic surveys of the region north of latitude 58.

Contact Gold Mines options part of the Studer Mines holdings but drops the option after trenching and geophysical surveys. Studer Mines drills 2,082 feet of the hole on the "C" and "D" Zones.

Partridge finds several gold occurrences in the Star and Forks Lakes area.

1962: - W. & Vicki Nemanishen acquire the Eureka showing which they later option to Bison Petroleum and Minerals Limited (1963-64), Dee Explorations Ltd. (1966-1969), and Asarco (1969).

B.R. Richards and J. Slater stake the Virgold claims, immediately east of the Virgin River. P. Friesen re-stakes the Ramsland Lakes area and options the property to International Minerals and Chemical Corporation (Canada) Limited, which finds several gold showings in the area during 1964-1965.

A partnership develops between E.F. Partridge & Associates and Falconbridge Nickel.

1963: - Hogg encounters gold during drilling of the sub-Athabasca rocks near Shasko Bay, (on the south shore of Lake Athabasca, west of Pine Channel) after a seismic survey was carried out along a northwest-southwest line by the lakeshore in an attempt to locate sub-Athabasca paleovalleys suitable for placer gold accumulation. Gold mineralization was encountered within the crystalline basement rocks; only traces of gold were found in the overlying Athabasca sandstones.

November 22. - John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

1964: - The geology of a recently discovered Precambrian iron-ore deposit, which lies 2,000 feet below the surface on the Fort-a-la-Come Forest Reserve near Choiceland, is discussed in a paper by Cheesman.

Compagnie de Mokta of France, the parent company of Amok Ltee., begins an exploration program for uranium. At first, it is focused on the Beaverlodge area but later directed toward the Athabasca Basin.

Gunnar Mine/Mill closes due to the exhaustion of its ore reserves. During the following years, the Beaverlodge Mine of Eldorado struggles alone at a reduced production rate. Exploration comes to a standstill. The market situation is made even worse by a US embargo on the import of non-USA uranium for use in nuclear reactors.

September 15. - The Geological Sciences Branch of DMR is formed to encompass all the Department's geological and geophysical studies in four divisions (Geophysics, Precambrian, Sedimentary Geology, and Industrial Minerals). The Branch, although having a different name, is the same in concept, practice and scope as the Saskatchewan Geological Survey of 1947. In La Ronge, a Precambrian Core repository is established as part of a Resident Geologist - Mines Records and Library complex.

December 3. - J.B. Mawdsley dies.

1965: - Revenue from metallic mining declines on account of the shut-down of Gunnar and reduction in the production of copper and gold by H.B.M.& S. To stimulate the economy the Precambrian Mineral Assistance Program, administered by DMR, is introduced giving a rebate of 50 percent of exploration and development costs to a maximum of $50,000 in a given year per individual or $150,000 per year on any one area or property. The Rabbit Lake discovery is one success of this program. The Prospectors' Assistance Plan and the Prospectors' Schools are discontinued.

E.H. and M.E. Hird prospect the Pine Channel area.

K.L. Currie challenges the views of Innes and others that Deep Bay, Reindeer Lake, is a meteoritic impact crater.

H.B.M.& S. closes the Coronation Mine. From 1960 to 1965 a total of 1,412,861 tons of ore with a grade of 4.25 percent copper was produced. All mine buildings are dismantled but some dump material remains on the site.

Rottenstone Mining Ltd. commences operations on their nickel-copper-gold-silver-palladium-platinum ore body at 100 tons per day from an open pit. Their mill produces concentrate which is shipped to the International Nickel Company of Canada smelter at Copper Cliff (Sudbury). This small operation, employing about 25 people, ran intermittently until 1968.

Studer Mines carries out geophysical surveys and completes 1,005 feet of diamond drilling in the "A" to "C" zones.

Anglo-Rouyn Ltd. and Rio Algom Mines arrange a management contract with Rio Algom as an operating partner. The Anglo-Rouyn shaft is deepened to 800 feet and the 5 Level is established. A camp and mill are built 6 miles off the highway north of La Ronge.

The Sonora deposit is optioned to McIntyre Porcupine Mines Limited.

1966: - The Anglo-Rouyn Mine at Moose Point, Waden Bay, Lac la Ronge, comes into production at 725 tons of ore per day on property staked in 1915, reported on in 1908, and likely recognized even earlier by local Indians. Concentrate from the mill is shipped by truck over a 247-mile route to the H.B.M.& S. smelter at Flin Flon. A cutoff road of 50 miles is built by the Saskatchewan Government to reduce haulage costs; this is now Route 165.

The La Ronge Mineral Syndicate collars a diamond-drill hole west-southwest of the Anglo-Rouyn shaft and just outside of the Anglo-Rouyn Mineral Lease. The hole is drilled vertically to a depth of 3,282 feet and intersects ore about 2,000 feet down-dip from previous drilling done by Anglo-Rouyn Ltd.

The Dynamic Group is formed in Calgary. It consists of New Continental Oil Company, Mill City Oil Company, Royal Canadian Ventures Ltd., Consolidated East Crest Ltd., Dynalta Oil and Gas Ltd., Crusade Oil Company, Dynamic Oil Ltd., and a private company comprising some individuals of the above companies. The objective is uranium exploration. Al Swanson is the exploration manager for the Group, assisted by Roy Jones.

Richards reports the occurrence of an auriferous boulder in the vicinity of Dicks Lake in the Cree Lake area.

Partridge notes gold mineralization on Little Moss Berry (Parker) Island, Wollaston Lake.

Sjolander discovers the Collins Bay uranium deposit.

W. Nemanishen and G. Glass stake gold claims in the Five Fingers, Teneycke Lakes area.

1966: - W. Nemanishen together with 0. Hanson, and B. Anderson, discover 1968: gold mineralization in the vicinity of Upises and Tenecyke Lakes.

1967: - Year of Canada's Centennial and Expo 67.

Scurry Rainbow finds a very interesting copper-nickel deposit in the Otter Lake area. This sets off a minor staking rush in La Ronge.

Western Nuclear starts production of a copper, lead, and zinc mine at Hanson Lake. The discovery had been made by Lew Parres and was based on an airborne magnetometer survey.

Murray Pike organizes his Wollex prospecting company.

Amok conducts an airborne scintillometer survey in the Athabasca Basin. Radioactive anomalies are discovered in the Fond du Lac, Stony Rapids, and Carswell Dome areas.

The increase in the use of uranium as a nuclear fuel for the generation of electric power and the consequent growing market demand leads to a considerable resurgence in prospecting for uranium. Search objectives are uranium-bearing conglomerates in the Athabasca Sandstone.

June 7. - Jim Brady and Abbie Halkett are flown into the Foster Lakes area to do some initial exploration work on old uranium showing for Richards. Their pilot is Gerry Mitchinson, a young theology student from Manitoba, who had not flown in the area before.

June 16. - Richards, on a re-supply trip, discovers that Mitchinson had dropped the two prospectors off at the northern tip of Lower Foster Lake rather than Middle Foster Lake which was the intended destination. Richards finds the camp and the canoe but the two men have disappeared. An intensive air and ground search lasting several weeks fails to find the missing men or their remains.

August-October. - An airborne survey on a 2-mile spacing is conducted by the Dynamic Group over 40,000 square miles of the Athabasca Basin after an agreement has been reached between New Continental Oil and DMR for financing under the Precambrian Mineral Assistance Program.

1968: - Social turmoil in France.

The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

Hogg (President) forms Flin Flon Mines Ltd. Exploratory drilling starts the next year.

Gordon Bragg becomes an exploration geologist for Western Nuclear.

Uranerz Exploration and Mining Ltd. commences an exploration program in the Key Lake area.

New Continental Oil Company of Canada Limited carries out work on the Little Moss Berry (Parker) Island gold showing.

August 21. - Invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviets during the time of the International Geological Congress in Prague.

October. - George Livo of Gulf Minerals Ltd., a subsidiary of the Gulf Oil Company of Pittsburgh, persuades Jim Early of his company's office in Denver to drill an area of radioactive boulders before ending the field season. This drilling led to the discovery of the Rabbit Lake Mine.

November. -Production ceases at the Rottenstone Lake Mine.

December 3. - Gulf Minerals Ltd. takes over permits obtained by the Dynamic Group headed by New Continental as a result of the previous year's survey and announces the discovery of a uranium deposit at Rabbit Lake, just west of Wollaston Lake, grading 0.6 percent or 12 pounds to the ton (three times as rich as the Beaverlodge area deposits), located at the unconformity between the Athabasca Sandstone and metamorphic basement rocks. Radioactive boulders near the deposit were found by checking anomalies from the airborne radiometric survey conducted the previous year by the Dynamic Group. This announcement creates the greatest land rush for uranium ever in the province. Within 3 months, 40,000,000 acres, or 75 percent of the Precambrian area, are placed under mineral disposition. The rush proves to be short-lived, however, as the origin and nature of Athabasca Basin deposits were poorly understood at that time and exploration was largely unsuccessful. An exception to this is Amok, which succeeds in discovering, by tracing pitchblende-bearing boulders, three orebodies at Cluff Lake within the Carswell Dome, a circular structure within the Athabasca Basin that exposes the basement and the unconformity. Further drilling and delineation during the next several years was to show one of the orebodies (the "D" orebody) to be the richest ever discovered anywhere in the world.

1969: - Early in the year some 50 different companies control approximately 50,000 square miles of uranium permits. Most are held by oil companies familiar with this type of land acquisition used for the first time in Canada for mineral exploration. The Precambrian Mineral Assistance Program is discontinued.

Amok announces uranium discovery at Cluff Lake.

Eldorado begins stockpiling all of its Beaverlodge production, a program which is to continue for 5 years.

A train of mineralized, uraniferous boulders is discovered in the vicinity of Midwest Lake.

Steve Yanik carries out some work on old gold showings at the east end of Algold Bay, Pine Channel area, as well as on Thompson Island.

Trenching and drilling started on the Eureka property (McKay Lake) and several new mineralized zones are exposed. Great Plains Development Company of Canada Limited options the Studer properties.

Western Nuclear Mine closes.

A multi-disciplinary study, edited by A.R. Byers, dealing with the Coronation Mine is published by the GSC. It contains contributions by R.G. Arnold, K.B.S. Burke, E.L. Faulkner, C.S. Ferris, D.J. Gendzwill, Zoltan Hajnal, M.J. Rutherford, and B.P. Scott.

July 21. - Neil Armstrong steps out of Apollo 11 onto the surface of the moon.

1970: - A paper, based on several years of detailed petrological and mineralogical studies in the Hanson Lake area is published by L.C. Coleman, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan.

A general paper on the Wollaston Lake area is presented to the Convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association by Cawley, Deputy Minister of DMR.

The Flexar Mine of H.B.M.& S., south of Creighton, goes into production.

The federal government proposes to restrict foreign ownership of Canadian uranium. This announcement brings the already slow pace of exploration in Saskatchewan to a virtual halt.

Eldorado Nuclear Ltd., (the new name of Eldorado Mining and Refining Ltd.) brings into production its Hab satellite mine, 7 miles to the north of the main (Ace) mine, to feed ore to the mill at the main site.

Anglo-Rouyn mine produces 12,592 ounces of gold.

E. Hind sets up a small crusher and possibly recovers some gold from his Pic showing in the La Ronge area near the Jolu Mine.

Spring. - Drilling at Rabbit Lake indicates an economic orebody and Gulf Minerals Canada Ltd. announces its plans to develop a mine and mill.

1970-1972: During this period some minor drilling and trenching are done on a few properties in the Lac la Ronge area, notably those north of Contact Lake, Upises Lake, and the Eureka property. Some new mineralization is found. Rede Explorations is involved in the Ramsland Lakes area.

Jahala Lake Uranium Mines sinks a 120-foot inclined shaft into a pegmatite discovered in 1949.

1971: - Initial exploration begins in the Key Lake area.

At Cluff Lake, the "D" orebody is outlined with an average ore grade of 7 and a high of 30 percent U308.

1972: - Adolph Studer dies.

Decade Development Ltd. options the Jolu property in the La Ronge area.

August 15. - Anglo-Rouyn Mine shuts down; more than 200 employees lose their jobs. The total value of concentrates shipped is $37,150,358.

By the end of the year, many companies engaged in uranium exploration have withdrawn their exploration crews. Many permits, mineral leases, and claim blocks are dropped or reduced in size.

1973: - Hanson drills about 400 feet of diamond drill hole for Nemanishen on the gold prospect north of Upises Lake. Mackenzie works in the Ramsland Lakes area.

Partridge acquires control of Waddy Lake Mines Ltd.

The Saskatchewan Government begins a programme of geochemical and geophysical surveys in both the copper and gold belts. The Prospectors' School is re-instituted in La Ronge and satellite classes in other northern communities are introduced. The Prospectors' Incentive (assistance) Plan is also re-introduced.

August to October. - At the Jolu claims, east shore of Mallard Lake, a small lake approximately 0.8 km south of Joj ay Lake, the Decade Development Ltd. Mine mills a total of 2,270 tons of ore, averaging 25 tons per day. Shipped to the American Smelting and Refining Company in Helena, Montana, are 8 dry tons of concentrate which produced 173 ounces of gold and 20 ounces of silver. Gold recovery ranged between 30 and 60 percent.

1973: - In the summer of 1973, a chalet was built by Philip Cousteau in 1974: Lower Foster Lake to serve as a base for the making of a film on beavers. Work extended through the winter 1973-1974.

A. Fossen performs work on the Ela showing as well as on Thompson Island, Pine Channel.

Chancellor Energy Resources Inc. options and drills the Komis deposit in the Waddy Lake area.

Two declines and underground levels are developed on the Jolu property in 1973-1974 and a further 2,800 tons of ore are mined.

Decade Development Ltd. options the Jolu property in the La Ronge area.

August 15. - Anglo-Rouyn Mine shuts down; more than 200 employees lose their jobs. The total value of concentrates shipped is $37,150,358.

By the end of the year, many companies engaged in uranium exploration have withdrawn their exploration crews. Many permits, mineral leases, and claim blocks are dropped or reduced in size.

1973: - Hanson drills about 400 feet of diamond drill hole for Nemanishen on the gold prospect north of Upises Lake. Mackenzie works in the Ramsland Lakes area.

Partridge acquires control of Waddy Lake Mines Ltd.

The Saskatchewan Government begins a programme of geochemical and geophysical surveys in both the copper and gold belts. The Prospectors' School is re-instituted in La Ronge and satellite classes in other northern communities are introduced. The Prospectors' Incentive (assistance) Plan is also re-introduced.

August to October. - At the Jolu claims, east shore of Mallard Lake, a small lake approximately 0.8 km south of Joj ay Lake, the Decade Development Ltd. Mine mills a total of 2,270 tons of ore, averaging 25 tons per day. Shipped to the American Smelting and Refining Company in Helena, Montana, are 8 dry tons of concentrate which produced 173 ounces of gold and 20 ounces of silver. Gold recovery ranged between 30 and 60 percent.

1973 - 1974: - In the summer of 1973, a chalet was built by Philip Cousteau on Lower Foster Lake to serve as a base for the making of a film on beavers. Work extended through the winter of 1973-1974.

A. Fossen performs work on the Ela showing as well as on Thompson Island, Pine Channel.

Chancellor Energy Resources Inc. options and drills the Komis deposit in the Waddy Lake area.

Two declines and underground levels are developed on the Jolu property in 1973-1974 and a further 2,800 tons of ore are mined.

1974: - The provincial government takes over the claims north of Contact Lake and the Hebden Lake Mineral Lease and begins geochemical and geological surveys. The Department of Northern Saskatchewan drills one showing in the Ramsland Lakes area.

Eldorado stops its stockpiling program and makes some uranium sales at a price of about $12.50 a pound, realizing a profit of $2.6 million for the year. During 1969-1973, it stockpiled almost 7 million pounds of uranium and experienced total losses of $12.7 million.

Studer Mines Limited, which had drilled the Studer "C" Zone in 1960-61, 1965, and 1967, has now outlined a significant tonnage of ore-grade material. Stripping and drilling is also done on Studer's "D" Zone. Additional trenching is done on the Eureka prospect.

June. - A joint venture group headed by Uranerz Exploration and Mining Ltd. approaches the Saskatchewan Government to enter into the joint venture partnership of the Key Lake project. The offer is accepted and on June 4, 1974, the Saskatchewan Mining and Development Corporation (SMDC) was formed to act as the partner, and generally as the exploration and mining arm of the government for minerals other than potash, sodium sulphate, and petroleum.

1975: - The first orebody, named Gaertner, with an estimated reserve of 814,000 tonnes U308 is discovered by Uranerz Exploration and Mining, Texaco Oil, and SMDC in the Key Lake area. The mineralization occurs at the base of the Athabasca Sandstone and is associated with arsenic, cobalt, nickel, and sulphide minerals in varying amounts. Again, radioactive boulders at the surface provided a strong indication of the presence of an orebody nearby.

March 1. - All companies exploring in Saskatchewan who plan to spend more than $10,000 on a particular holding are required by law to offer SMDC a 50 percent joint venture. SMDC assesses the project and determines the level of participation, if any, based on the project's likelihood of success.

September. - Gulf Minerals brings its Rabbit Lake Mine/Mill on stream, with a capacity of 4.5 million pounds of yellowcake (U308) annually.

October. - Decade Development's Jolu Mine closes owing to poor recoveries and financial problems. Approximately 500 ounces of gold were recovered from some 5,000 tons of ore milled.

Fall. - The Saskatchewan Government proposes a new uranium royalty structure based on a flat royalty of 5 percent on revenues plus a graduated royalty based on profits. This announcement causes some concern in the industry. Amok suspends development operations on the Cluff Lake Mine and Eldorado postpones a decision on the planned expansion of the Beaverlodge Mine.

1976: - Eldorado announces plans to double the production capacity of the Beaverlodge Mine and Mill over the next five years.

The Deilmann orebody is discovered in the Key Lake area, with a total estimated reserve of 182 million pounds of U308.

Gerald Ray, mapping for DMR in the Highrock Lake area, recognizes the Key Lake deposits as occurring at the unconformable contact between graphitic basement gneisses and the overlying Athabasca Group. The model thus developed is used by the Gulf exploration staff to find the Collins Bay "B" and "West Bear" deposits.

August 1. - The Saskatchewan Uranium Royalty (SUR) takes effect replacing the Saskatchewan Metallic Minerals Royalty.

August. - Amok announces its decision to proceed with a mine/mill complex at Cluff Lake.

December 7. - Joan Studer, daughter of Adolph Studer and who had become a professional pilot, crashes in her Cessna 185, west of Nipawin. The accident was caused by the structural failure of the skis on the aircraft.

December. - The Saskatchewan Government announces its intention to hold a public inquiry into the Cluff Lake Mine and the advisability generally of permitting the expansion of uranium development in Saskatchewan. Eldorado temporarily shelves its expansion plans and Amok suspends all exploration and development work, although the Government had not made any such requirement.

1977: - Using the unconformity deposit model, Leo Kirwan of Esso's exploration staff interprets the mineralized float at Midwest Lake as having been derived from a small satellite orebody above a deeper source at the contact between the basement and the Athabasca Sandstone. Deep drilling indeed reveals the presence of ore at this contact. The Midwest Lake orebody, being well within the Athabaska Basin also shows the excellent uranium possibilities of the deeper parts of the basin.

February. - The members of the Cluff Lake Board of Inquiry are appointed: Justice Edward Bayda, Chairman; Dr. Agnes Groome and Dr. Kenneth J. McCallum, members.

April-November. - The Cluff Lake Board holds formal hearings in Regina and Saskatoon.

1978: - Amok and SMDC hold preliminary discussions on the latter's possible participation in the Cluff Lake project.

Eldorado announces its intention to establish a uranium refinery in Saskatchewan and indicates its interest in a site at Warman, near Saskatoon. Studies have already commenced on the site and preparation of an environmental impact statement has begun.

Kintla Explorations Ltd. acquires the Thompson Island gold showings and for the next two years does some work there.

Spring. - The joint venture partnership of Asamera Oil Corporation, SMDC, and Canadian Kelvin Resources initiate a drilling program on their Dawn Lake property to the east of Midwest Lake.

June. - The Cluff Lake Board completes what becomes known as the Bayda Report. It recommends that Cluff Lake be allowed to proceed and that the industry be allowed to expand, providing that strict conditions regarding environmental protection, worker health and safety, and northern benefits are adhered to by the industry.

July. - The Government of Saskatchewan issues its response, accepting the recommendations of the Cluff Lake Board of Inquiry.

Fall. - The Government of Saskatchewan grants Amok a surface lease and an agreement is reached on the level of northern participation, training, and other matters.

1979: - The provincial government appoints the Key Lake Board of Inquiry (KLBI) to review the Key Lake Mining Corporation's (KLMC) proposed uranium mine and mill and to recommend terms under which the project could proceed. The inquiry is to be chaired by lawyer Robert Mitchell.

Waddy Lake Mines Ltd. is re-organized and re-named Waddy Lake Resources Inc.

February. - Following six years of evolution and development, a formal Environmental Impact Assessment Policy was announced by the Government of Saskatchewan. This involves the screening of project proposals by an interdepartmental review panel to determine if and at what level an assessment is required. Depending on the magnitude or impact of the project, the proponent: 1) may be allowed to proceed immediately subject to existing regulations; 2) may have to provide an "overview assessment" outlining general impacts and suggesting mitigation measures; and 3) may have to do a detailed study possibly followed by public information meetings and/or public hearings.

July. - SMDC acquires a 20 percent share in Cluff Lake in partnership with Amok.

Summer. - The Regina Group for a Non-Nuclear Society (RGNNS) takes KLMC to court for de-watering lakes without the proper authorization from the government, seeking an injunction against further development work. During the transfer of responsibility for environmental regulation of uranium mining from the DMR to the Department of Environment, the company had incorrectly obtained a de-watering permit from Mineral Resources rather than Environment due to a government error.

October. - RGNNS drops the court case because the judge refused to grant an interim injunction against further development and hence, they felt, was unlikely to grant the mandatory injunction being sought.

1980: - The anti-nuclear groups in the province declare their intention to boycott hearings of the KLBI because its mandate was to establish the conditions under which the project would proceed, not whether it would proceed. They accuse the KLBI of being merely window dressing for a decision that had already been made. Among the anti-nuclear groups is the recently established Inter-Church Uranium Committee (ICUC).

Pyx Exploration carries out a bulk sampling project at the Athona property, Lake Athabasca.

Waddy Lake Resources Inc. evaluates the Komis deposit by processing a 1031-ton bulk sample through a concentrator.

Flin Flon Mines Ltd. announces that an economic orebody has been outlined on the Rio Zone at Douglas Lake.

January. - Public hearings on a refinery proposed by Eldorado at Warman are held by a Federal Environmental Assessment Review Panel. The hearings are characterized by a large and well-organized anti-nuclear turnout and a strongly anti-nuclear and anti-refinery tone. A rift in the Mennonite community of Warman develops over the issue.

Transfer of the Pollution Prevention Regulations from the DMR to the Department of Environment is formally completed.

February. - Procedural hearings are held by the KLBI to establish the ground rules and information requirements of the hearings.

March. - Overview hearings are held by the KLBI to allow the public to hear a summary of the project and its impacts. At this time the La Ronge Concerned Citizens Group withdraws from the hearings claiming that simultaneous translation into Native languages was not being provided. (In fact, it had been offered at the beginning of the hearings and was declined.)

April. - KLBI makes community visits throughout the North. May. KLBI holds informal hearings throughout the North.

Open pit mining of the "D" orebody begins with Cluff Mining, a new company created to develop Amok's deposits.

June to October. - KLBI holds formal hearings in La Ronge.

August. - The Federal Environmental Assessment Review Panel releases its report on the proposed refinery at Warman. It finds the refinery to be acceptable in terms of environmental and health impacts but finds that further study of the refinery's social impact will be necessary before a decision can be made. Eldorado subsequently drops its options on the Warman site and as yet has taken no action to select another site.

September. - Cluff Lake Phase One mine and mill start-up.

Flin Flon Mines completes an environmental impact assessment at $400,000 and approval is given to mine the Rio and adjacent Henning-Maloney zones. By the end of the year, a decline on the Rio property is completed. Also, the nearby Newcor deposit is acquired.

1981: - SMDC becomes the operator of the gold showings at Thompson Island taking over from Kintla Explorations Ltd.

Late in the year, the "D" orebody is completely mined out and the ore is stockpiled to await processing.

February. - The KLBI releases its report. It is recommended that the project should proceed under the strictest environmental health and safety, socio-economic, and technological guidelines ever established for a mine and mill anywhere in the world.

April. - The environmentalist group "Greenpeace" announces its intention to halt uranium development in Saskatchewan through an intensive campaign in the summer of 1981.

Summer. - Site preparation begins in the Key Lake area.

SMDC sponsors an archaeological expedition to recover Dardier's shot drills from the Fond du Lac area, used there in 1916-17.

August. - Key Lake Development Surface Lease Agreement is signed with the Department of Northern Saskatchewan by SMDC, Eldor, Uranerz, and KLMC.

SMDC becomes the operator and carries out work in the Algold and Sucker Bay areas, Pine Channel, taking over from Golden Rule Resources Ltd.

1981-1984: - In the Star Lake area, approximately 115 km northeast of La Ronge, diamond drilling done by SMDC, the operator of joint ventures with other companies, reveals significant gold deposits.

1982: - March. The United Church conducts a series of "Uranium Hearings" throughout Saskatchewan.

September. - Uranium mining at Collins Bay approved without hearings.

Construction begins at KLMC.

1983: - At Cluff Lake, processing of Phase One ore is completed with a total of 591,544 pounds of U308 recovered from 782 tons of ore in a mill designed to process the extremely high-grade (up to 40 percent U308) ore of the "D" orebody. Cluff Lake Phase II mine and mill startup.

A major, high-grade uranium deposit, the Cigar Lake deposit, is announced by the Waterbury Lake joint venture, operated by SERU Nucleaire (Canada) Limited (now Cogema Canada Limited), with SMDC holding a 50.75 percent interest. Diamond drilling of 65 holes over a length of 600 m is done on the Cigar Lake structure and shows good continuity of uranium mineralization with a maximum width of about 100 m with very high grades. Several holes exceed 10 percent U308 over a thickness greater than 10 m. The mineralization occurs at the base of the Athabasca Sandstone and is associated with arsenic, cobalt, nickel, and sulphide minerals in variable amounts. The deposit lies at a depth of 410 to 440 m, too deep for open-pit mining. New mining methods will have to be developed to mine this deep, high-grade deposit safely underground.

A new audio-magnetotelluric survey system, developed at the University of Saskatchewan, is tested in the field by SMDC. This technique will make possible the identification of basement rocks and alteration zones, favourable for the occurrence of uranium, underlying some hundreds of metres of Athabasca Sandstone.

Besides activity at Cluff Lake, Key Lake, and Waterbury Lake, uranium prospecting goes on at Dawn Lake, near Rabbit Lake. Also active are the Cree-Zimmer project, which includes the large, geologically favourable area surrounding the Key Lake mine, and the McArthur River project to the northeast of Key Lake. Drilling progressed on the Studer-Umpherville project located south of Dawn Lake where AGIP Canada Ltd. is the operator. After several years of reduced activity, exploration starts again on the Hatchet Lake project, located north of Rabbit Lake. The Saskatchewan Mineral Venture, operated by Eldor Resources Ltd., is exploring lands located directly north and south of the Rabbit Lake mining area.

Some 15 major gold and base metal exploration projects are undertaken. These include the Star Lake project, located near Brabant Lake, 6 km off Highway 102, as well as exploration near Wedge Lake and Weedy Lake. Ground surveys on the Neyrinck (Waddy Lake), Tower, and Oven properties, all northeast of La Ronge, are conducted in preparation for drilling in 1984. Exploration is also carried out on gold and base metal projects in the Amisk Lake-Hanson Lake area and on a gold property in the Uranium City area.

Flin Flon Mines starts underground development on the Rio property and construction is begun on a 125-ton-per-day mill; mining commences.

June. - Saskatchewan church leaders issue a statement opposing uranium mining.

September. - Completion of construction and start-up of Key Lake Mine/Mill complex, the western world's largest uranium mine. When operating at its full capacity of 12 million pounds of yellowcake annually, it will produce over 10 percent of the uranium fuel used by the Western world for the generation of nuclear electricity. Total exploration, development, and capital costs for the Key Lake project are more than $500 million.

October. - The Key Lake Mill produces its first pound of yellowcake. The total time elapsed from the beginning of exploration to production is 15 years. The total life expectancy of the project is 15 to 18 years.

November. - NDP Convention adopts a resolution to phase out uranium mining if returned to power.

December. - Production of Cluff Mining totals 1,773,551 pounds yellowcake for the year.

1984: - Waddy Lake Resources Inc. considers a conventional milling plant or a heap-leaching process to develop the Komis gold deposit.

SMDC becomes active in the exploration of gold in the Goldfields area.

Flin Flon Mines Ltd.'s Rio Mine is open and will employ 46 people. The mill is designed to process 125 tons of ore per day. The average grade of ore is 0.29 ounces of gold per ton. Gold price is now C$455 per ounce.

In uranium mining, the following situation prevails: OW Lake started in 1981; owners, Amok 80 percent, SMDC 20 percent; annual production, 2.5 million pounds of yellowcake; reserves Phase I ("D" orebody) 11 million pounds U308, Phase II (open pit and under-ground) 28 million. Rabbit Lake/Collins Bay - started in 1975; owner, Eldorado 100 percent; annual production, 5 million pounds of yellowcake; reserves, 53 million pounds of U308 at Collins Bay. Key Lake - started in 1983; owners, SMDC 50 percent, Uranerz 33'/3 percent, Eldorado 162/3 percent; annual production, 10 million pounds of yellowcake; reserves, 200 million pounds of U308. In 1984 the total yellowcake production in Saskatchewan was 17.5 million pounds; direct employment was 1,200 (35 percent of whom are northern employees); the value of exports was $434 million; wages and salaries paid directly by the uranium industry were $37 million; taxes and royalties amounted to $43 million. The indirect employment was 3,660. The contribution to Saskatchewan's Gross Domestic Product was $1,000 million.

January. - At Key Lake Mine a spill of 16.2 million gallons of contaminated mine water occurs when a reservoir is overfilled.

Spring. - Clean-up at the Key Lake Mine is completed and no environmental danger can be found.

May 16. - An environmental forum sponsored by the ICUC on nuclear waste contamination in northern Saskatchewan shows the churches divided into questions of uranium development and the environment.

July. - The first gold brick is poured at the Rio mine of Flin Flon Mines Ltd.

December. - A pre-feasibility study commissioned by SMDC and Starrex Mining Corporation indicates that there is enough gold at their site, 130 km northeast of La Ronge, to warrant a gold milling operation.