Giant Mine YK:NT Postcard

The Giant Mine was a large gold mine located on the Ingraham Trail just outside of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Giant Mine is within the Kam Group, which is part of the Yellowknife greenstone belt. Gold was discovered on the property in 1935 by Johnny Baker, but the true extent of the gold deposits were not known until 1944 when a massive gold-bearing shear zone was uncovered beneath the drift-filled Baker Creek Valley. The discovery led to a massive post-war staking boom in Yellowknife. Giant Mine entered production in 1948 and ceased operations in 2004. It produced over 7,000,000 ozt (220,000 kg) of gold. Owners of the mine have included Falconbridge (1948-1986 through subsidiary Giant Yellowknife Mines Limited), Pamour of Australia (1986-1990 through subsidiary Giant Yellowknife Mines Limited), Royal Oak Mines (1990–1999), and Miramar Mining Corporation (1999–2004). When Royal Oak went bankrupt in 1999 DIAND took over responsibility for cleaning up the Giant mine site.