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| Formerly |
|
|---|---|
| Company type | Crown corporation |
| Industry | Mining |
| Founded | 1926; 99 years ago (1926)[1]: 17 |
| Founders |
|
| Defunct | 1988 (1988) |
| Fate | Merged withSaskatchewan Mining Development Corporation |
| Successors | |
| Owner | Government of Canada |
Eldorado Resources was a Canadianmining company active between 1926 and 1988.[1] The company was originally established by brothers Charles andGilbert LaBine as a gold mining enterprise in 1926,[2] but transitioned to focus onradium in the 1930s anduranium beginning in the 1940s. The company was nationalized into aCrown corporation in 1943 when theCanadian federal government purchased share control. Eldorado Resources was merged with theSaskatchewan Mining Development Corporation in 1988 and the resulting entity was privatized asCameco Corporation. 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 theCanada Development Investment Corporation.
Eldorado was originally established as Eldorado Gold Mines but, after findingradioactive deposits atGreat Bear Lake,Northwest Territories in 1930, the company transitioned to primarily mining radioactive materials. Gilbert LaBine directed the company's development of theEldorado Mine atPort Radium, Northwest Territories and built a state-of-the-artradium refinery inPort Hope,Ontario in 1933. In addition to radium, Eldorado also producedsilver,copper, anduranium salts.
Radium production halted in 1940 whenWorld War II 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 theUnited States military with uranium products. TheGovernment of Canada 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 theManhattan Engineer District, Lt-ColKenneth Nichols 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 orCominco was building a heavy water plant atTrail, British Columbia and Eldorado was mining and processing uranium ore. He phonedC. D. Howe 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 himmost friendly. Howe was told about the Manhattan Project, and Nichols was told that Eldorado was now a Crown company.[3]
The Crown corporation held a monopoly on uranium prospecting and development inCanada until 1948.[4] Together with a discovery of the Port Radium deposits, the Eldorado company opened the Beaverlodge Mine atUranium City,Saskatchewan. 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, withEldorado Aviation Limited operating flights to Port Radium.
The Eldorado corporate records are housed in theNational Archives of Canada.
Port Hope has the largest volume of historic low-levelradioactive wastes in Canada, created byEldorado Mining and Refining Limited and its private sector predecessors.[5] By 2010 when it was projected that it would cost well over a billion dollars for thesoil remediation project of thebrownfield, it was the largest such cleanup in Canadian history. The effort is projected to be complete in 2022.[6] 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 contaminated sites (namelyFaro mine,Colomac mine,Giant mine,Cape Dyer-DEW line,Goose Bay Air Base) had a combined liability of $1.8 billion.[7]
...where he and Charles formed a company, Eldorado Gold Mines.