Mine workers mourn shutdown
2003 Con Mine closure sends some to early retirement
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Friday, July 4, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Pam MacQuarrie-Higden began working at Con Mine in 1979 after Robertson Headframe was built.
She is believed to be the first woman in the North to work underground in a mine. Eighteen of her 33 years working at the mine were spent as the cage tender on the lifts.
"I loved my time at Con but it was not easy work," said MacQuarrie-Higden, whose father was one of the first people to be killed working at Con Mine.
MacQuarrie-Higden and her husband said the closure of the mine was devastating to both themselves and the community.
"It was a sad day - it was emotional," said MacQuarrie-Higden.
"We weren't ready to retire," added her husband, Bill Higden, who also worked at the mine.
While Yellowknife's mining heritage continues to live on in the diamond mines north of the city, Higden said the closing of Con represents the end of an era.
"Mines will always be closing and news ones will always be opening, but a certain kind of miner is gone forever," said Higden.
Now that the mine has been closed for more than 10 years, almost all traces of its existence - including the old camp and the C1 shaft - have been erased - except, of course, for the Robertson Headframe. Much like the seemingly indestructible miners who built Yellowknife, Higden said the headframe will stand the test of time, so long as no one gets in its way.
"There's so much potential there, if only there was somebody with some intelligence," he said.
