Companies have been in and out of Goldfields since the late ’80s, hoping to re-open the gold mine that closed at the dawn of WW2. Gold prices have never been right, many companies simply weren’t serious: drilling was a way to raise money on the notorious Vancouver Stock Exchange, then fold and disappear. But Fortune Bay has persisted, and now has drilling crews posted in Uranium City and working at the site year-round. When I was in UC in late summer 2022, they had just vacated the house we ended up occupying on Hospital Hill, and their presence was very apparent on the old Goldfields site when we drove up, including a fence which essentially cut the old town site from the outside world. The area was so overgrown, mostly with birch and alder, we couldn’t see the headframe from the road, as I could when I was last at the mine site in the autumn of 2000. Sasktel has reportedly run power lines to the area, so maybe, just maybe, a mine will finally open in the area, over 40 years since Eldorado Nuclear decomissioned their Beaverlodge mine, tearing down its three mineheads and its mill, and levelling the company town of Eldorado with its fine town houses and bunk houses and sprawling rec center. Maybe Uranium City will become a gold mining town.

Maybe . . .

See the companies home page with some dazzling images of the old Box Mine mine head and the area around the mine site:

https://fortunebaycorp.com/

One mine would not bring Uranium City to anything like its former glory. Miners will fly in and fly out for the most part, and most will spend little time in town. But it will mean increased business for the bulk fuel, the one remaing store, and perhaps a demand for the return of more stores, even a restaurant or a bar. It would mean the Saskatchewan government would finally invest in Uranium City’s infrastructure, and make it easier, and more affordable, to actually get there, which would mean more tourism, and thus more money coming into town. Improved infrastructure would mean more mining companies could potentially operate in the area, which might lead to more mines.

There would be downsides. Mining is a messy business. Even with modern safeguards, mines inevitably pollute. Lake Athabasca is already somewhat polluted by Gunnar Mine, which operated when there were virtually no standards, whose vast tailings ponds were leaking into Crackingstone Point before remediation work began 10 years ago. The Tar Sands are suspected to be leaking some pollutants into the Athabasca River, which flows into Lake Athabasca. Another mine certainly won’t help. More activity would mean some disruption to wildfile, and indigenous hunting and fishing grounds. But perhaps Uranium City could finally be cleaned up, the roads repaired, and have an economy beyond remediation of the mines that profilerated in the ’50s, and the old Eldorado mine site. Perhaps the town could have a second life (arguably a third, since the first big crash happened in 1959).

More from Fortune Bay on their Goldfields holding:
https://fortunebaycorp.com/projects/goldfields-gold-project/#

Check Out the Fortune Bay Photo Gallery:
https://fortunebaycorp.com/media-centre