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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The NWT Mining Heritage Society is worried the dishevelled state of its Giant Mine display will be a damper on Yellowknife's show of local history when the city hosts Canada's Annual Energy and Mine Minister's conference in August 2013.

Walt Humphries, left, president of the NWT Mining Heritage Society and Mike Vaydik, vice-president of the NWT Mining Heritage Society, hope the federal government's fence is down and their equipment is replaced in time for the 2013 Canada's Annual Energy and Mine Minister's conference in Yellowknife. - Lyndsay Herman/NNSL photo

"It's a national conference of the mine ministers of the provinces and territories, so it's a biggie," said Walt Humphries, president of the NWT Mining Heritage Society.

The society has collected, displayed and created plaques for 40- to 50-year-old mining equipment over the past six years from Giant, Con and Tundra mines as well as from the Canol Trail and the bush around the city. The vehicles, including a Bombardier, fire truck, bulldozers, and a steam-engine-sized boiler, were placed along one side of the Yellowknife Boat Launch parking lot.

During the last week of August, the Giant Mine Remediation Team moved the equipment to one side of the parking lot due to concerns about the stability of the ground it had been sitting on.

Adrian Paradis, acting manager of the Giant Mine remediation project, said the crown pillar, the rock mass between the mined area underground and the surface, is less than 100 feet.

"The engineers basically looked at it and said, 'Well, it's a little thinner than we're comfortable with,'" he said. "Now we're going to drill and determine whether or not if there is really an issue."

The Mackenzie Valley Land and Water board issued a permit for the investigative drilling, called geo-technical drilling, to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada on Sept. 13. Paradis said the remediation team expects to be drilling by the end of the month. The display items could be replaced as early as next summer, but if the area requires reinforcement underground there could be delays, he said.

"We moved it in the first place so we'll move it back to where it was," said Paradis. "If it's not stable we'll have to work with the mine heritage society to figure out a solution with them and the city."

Humphries said the society had expected work to be done by mid-summer after they were notified of the plans in the spring. For now, the society is simply waiting to see what happens, he said.

"I think it's very good display," said Humphries. "I'd like to keep improving it, make it better.

"We don't have a way of tracking how many people go out there but any day I go out there working, there's always people who come to look at it. A lot of old miners, they love it, and people who are mechanical buffs. People just like old stuff."

Among the society's plans for the display are the addition of new vehicles, a mining heritage museum, a static display in the log cabin already on the site, and the creation of a picnic and walking area around Baker Creek.

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