Eldorado Resources was a Canadian

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

company active between 1926 and 1988. The company was originally established by brothers Charles and

Gilbert LaBine Gilbert A. LaBine, (10 February 1890 – 8 June 1977) was a Canadian prospector who, in 1930, discovered radium and uranium deposits at Port Radium, Northwest Territories. He has become known as the father of Canada's uranium industry. LaB ...

as a gold mining enterprise in 1926, but transitioned to focus on

radium Radium is a chemical element with the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rathe ...

in the 1930s and

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

beginning in the 1940s. The company was nationalized into a Crown corporation in 1943 when the

Canadian federal government The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

purchased share control. Eldorado Resources was merged with the

Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation The Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation (SMDC) was a provincial crown corporation established in 1974 by the Government of Saskatchewan to manage the government's interests in exploration and mining in the province. It was active in the ex ...

in 1988 and the resulting entity was privatized as

Cameco Corporation Cameco Corporation (formerly Canadian Mining and Energy Corporation) is the world's largest publicly traded uranium company, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2015, it was the world's second largest uranium producer, accounting for 18 ...

. The remediation of some mining sites and low-level nuclear waste continue to be overseen by the Government of Canada through Canada Eldor Inc., a subsidiary of the

Canada Development Investment Corporation The Canada Development Investment Corporation (CDEV; french: Corporation de développement des investissements du Canada) is a Canadian Crown corporation responsible for managing investments and corporate interests held by the Government of Can ...

History

Eldorado was originally established as Eldorado Gold Mines but, after finding

radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consid ...

deposits 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. ...

in 1930, the company transitioned to primarily mining radioactive materials. Gilbert LaBine directed the company's development of the Eldorado Mine at

Port Radium, Northwest Territories 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 ...

and built a state-of-the-art

refinery in Port Hope,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

in 1933. In addition to radium, Eldorado also produced

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 ...

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 ...

, and

salts. Radium production halted 1940 when

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

closed European markets for radium material. Uranium was useless until scientists realized the enormous energy potential of the uranium atom. The company reopened the mine at Port Radium in 1942 to supply 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 ...

military with uranium products. The

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

nationalized the company by purchasing share control in 1943. and in early 1944 the name was changed to Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited. In mid-1943 the District Engineer of the

Manhattan Engineer District The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

, Lt-Col

Kenneth Nichols Major General Kenneth David Nichols CBE (13 November 1907 – 21 February 2000), also known by Nick, was an officer in the United States Army, and a civil engineer who worked on the secret Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb dur ...

had several queries from Canada relating to contracts Canadian firms Eldorado Gold Mines and Consolidated Mining and Smelting (CMS) had for the secret atomic bomb project; CMS or

Cominco Teck Resources Limited, known as Teck Cominco until late 2008, is a diversified natural resources company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is engaged in mining and mineral development, including coal for the steelmaking indust ...

was building a heavy water plant at

Trail, British Columbia Trail is a city in the West Kootenay region of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It was named after the Dewdney Trail, which passed through the area. The town was first called Trail Creek or Trail Creek Landing, and the name was shorten ...

and Eldorado was mining and processing uranium ore. He phoned

C. D. Howe Clarence Decatur Howe, (15 January 1886 – 31 December 1960) was an American-born Canadian engineer, businessman and Liberal Party politician. Howe served as a cabinet minister in the governments of prime ministers William Lyon Mackenzie ...

in Ottawa and arranged to travel on the overnight train to Ottawa and see Howe the next day (June 14). On arriving at the address given Nichols was surprised to find that Howe was the minister of munitions and supply, and found him ''most friendly''. Howe was told about the Manhattan Project, and Nichols was told that Eldorado was now a Crown company. The Crown corporation held a monopoly on uranium prospecting and development in

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 ...

until 1948. Together with a discovery of the Port Radium deposits, the Eldorado company opened the Beaverlodge Mine at

Uranium City Uranium City is a northern settlement in Saskatchewan, Canada. Located on the northern shores of Lake Athabasca near the border of the Northwest Territories, it is above sea level. The settlement is northwest of Prince Albert, northeast of E ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. It entered production in 1953. In the 1960s the nature of sales changed when the United States military ceased purchasing of Canadian uranium ores for the purpose of atomic weapons, and from then on uranium was produced for power plants. During this period the name of the company was changed to Eldorado Nuclear Limited, with

Eldorado Aviation El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...

Limited operating flights to Port Radium. The Eldorado corporate records are housed in the

National Archives of Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is t ...

Port Hope, Ontario

Port Hope has the largest volume of historic low-level

wastes in Canada, created by

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 its private sector predecessors. By 2010 when it was projected that it would cost well over a billion dollars for the

soil remediation Environmental remediation deals with the removal of pollution or contaminants from environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment, or surface water. Remedial action is generally subject to an array of regulatory requirements, and may also ...

project of the

brownfield In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

, it was the largest such cleanup in Canadian history. The effort is projected to be complete in 2022. According to their 2014 report, the Canadian Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) noted that the liability for the Port Hope, Ontario contaminated site was $1 billion, whereas the Big Five other polluters (namely Faro mine,

Colomac mine The Colomac Mine was a privately owned and operated open pit gold mine located 220 km northwest of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories in Canada . The Colomac mine operated between 1990–1992, and 1994–1997. It was operated by Neptune ...

Giant mine The Giant Mine was a gold mine located on the Ingraham Trail, north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Giant Mine was within the Kam Group, a part of the Yellowknife greenstone belt. Gold was discovered on the property and mineral claims ...

, Cape Dyer-DEW line, Goose Bay Air Base) had a combined liability of $1.8 billion.

Former mine sites (partial list)

Eldorado Mine (Northwest Territories) The Eldorado Mine is a defunct mine located in Port Radium, Northwest Territories, Canada. The site, which covers 12 hectares, is located next to Echo Bay in the shore of Great Bear Lake. The mine was 270 miles by air north of Yellowknife and ...

Umisk Island Umisk Island is a small island in Beaverlodge Lake, Northern Saskatchewan, Canada. The island has a public picnic area. The west shore of the island was the site of exploratory uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and ...

References

{{Reflist Defunct mining companies of Canada Uranium mining companies of Canada Former Crown corporations of Canada Uranium City, Saskatchewan 1988 mergers and acquisitions Canadian companies established in 1926 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 1988 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1926 Canadian companies disestablished in 1988