Echo Bay Mines Limited was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

company which was organized in 1964 by Northwest Explorers Limited to develop a

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

deposit at

Great Bear Lake Great Bear Lake ( den, Sahtú; french: Grand lac de l'Ours) is a lake in the boreal forest of Canada. It is the largest lake entirely in Canada (Lake Superior and Lake Huron are larger but straddle the Canada–US border), the fourth-largest ...

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, which had been staked in 1930 by The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company. The company leased the old

Port Radium Port Radium is a mining area on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada. It included the settlement of Cameron Bay as well as the Eldorado (also called Port Radium) and Echo Bay mines. The name Port Radium did not ...

settlement from

Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited Eldorado Resources was a Canadian mining company active between 1926 and 1988. The company was originally established by brothers Charles and Gilbert LaBine as a gold mining enterprise in 1926, but transitioned to focus on radium in the 1930s an ...

and used the old camp and mill to recover silver and

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

values from what became known as the Echo Bay Mine. Production in the Echo Bay workings ceased in 1975. The company then reopened the old Eldorado Mine workings and produced more silver and copper until 1981 when low silver prices closed the mine for good. Echo Bay Mines Limited went on to open a new gold mine by that point,

Lupin Mine Lupin Mine was a gold mine in Nunavut, Canada. It opened in 1982 and was originally owned and operated by Echo Bay Mines Limited, who in 2003 became a fully owned subsidiary of Kinross Gold Corporation. The mine ceased production briefly in Aug ...

, in what was then the

and is today in

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

. It entered production in 1982. Echo Bay Mines Limited developed numerous other properties, mostly in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, including two mines in Nevada, McCoy/Cove and

Round Mountain gold mine The Round Mountain Gold Mine is an open pit gold mine in Round Mountain, Nevada. The mine is operated and owned by Kinross Gold. History Mining at Round Mountain occurred as early as 1906, using underground techniques. The mine produced 350, ...

, and the Kettle River mine in Washington. Corporate headquarters were in Englewood Colorado. In 1986 the company purchased Sunnyside Gold Mine in

Silverton, Colorado Silverton is a statutory town that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only incorporated municipality in San Juan County, Colorado, United States. The town is located in a remote part of the western San Juan Mountains, a ra ...

, and operated it for five years before it closed because of low gold prices. The company became a subsidiary of

Kinross Gold Corporation Kinross Gold Corporation is a Canadian-based gold and silver mining company founded in 1993 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Kinross currently operates six active gold mines, and was ranked fifth of the "10 Top Gold-mining Companies" o ...

in 2003 and has been delisted from the stock exchange.

References

{{Coord, 66.05511, N, 118.000088, W, display=title Gold mines in the Northwest Territories Companies based in the Northwest Territories Defunct mining companies of Canada Silver mines in Canada Defunct companies of the Northwest Territories