Mineral Exploration is the official publication of the Association of Mineral Exploration British Columbia.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/264766
Photograph : George Hunter 50777 s P r i n G 2 0 1 4 45 U ranium became a strategic- ally important commodity in 1942 thanks to its mil- itary significance during the Second World War. As a result, an urgent plan was implemented to estab- lish a large supply source in Canada. At the time, private prospectors and companies were banned from stak- ing and mining radioactive minerals. A Crown corporation named Eldorado Mining and Refining Ltd. held the sole exploration rights for radioac- tive minerals. It initiated an intensive exploration program for uranium that extended across parts of Canada. This included re-examining the 1935 discov- ery of pitchblende, a uranium mineral, at the Nicholson property three kilo- metres east of Goldfields on the north shore of Athabasca Lake in northern Saskatchewan. Goldfields was the town site for the former Box gold mine oper- ated by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company from 1939 to 1942. In 1946, systematic exploration pro- grams by Eldorado's geologists and prospectors using Geiger counters found more than 1,000 pitchblende showings around Goldfields and northward around Beaverlodge Lake, north of Athabasca Lake. The old town of Goldfields was reactivated as a base of operations for a short period. The best pitchblende showings were discovered by Philip St. Louis on September 27, 1946, along a well-defined major fault zone at Ace Lake one kilome- tre northeast of Beaverlodge Lake. This major discovery along the St. Louis Fault would become the main orebodies for the Ace-Fay mine for Eldorado. The ban on private staking was lifted in 1948, and this triggered one of the largest claim-staking rushes in Canadian >> camPs of fame Uranium City The hisToric Beaverlodge uranium rush led To The Boom – and BusT – of saskaTchewan's uranium ciTy By Ed Kimura Before Uranium City, the Eldorado town site served the Beaverlodge staking rush and the early years of the uranium boom. p44-49_CampsOfFame.indd 45 14-02-14 3:03 PM