Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Discovery
Mine was a gold mine 81 kilometers northeast of Yellowknife, Northwest
Territories that operated between 1950 and 1969. Gold was discovered
here by Alfred Giauque in 1944. A complete townsite, on Giauque Lake,
was established by the company to house workers and their families. The
mine produced one million troy ounces of gold from one million tons of
ore. The abandoned townsite, not accessible by road, was demolished in
2005. Discovery Mine was serviced by air and had an unpaved airstrip to
fly people and supplies in and out. After the mine was abandoned, the
airstrip was often used by flying instructors from Yellowknife to teach
their students emergency landing procedures on abandoned airstrips. As
late as the early 1980s, the airstrip was in sufficiently good shape to
use, with only a few potholes even after more than ten years. An aerial
view of the lake at that time showed it to be crystal clear, with an
unobstructed view to the rocky bottom and a beautiful blue colour. A
tailings spill in the early 1960s deposited contaminated waste into the
Lake.
