SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The new NWT Mining and Geological Interpretive Centre has set a tentative launch date of 2020.

A current outdoor display located near the Giant Mine site will be refurbished as part of the museum project. - Meagan Leonard/NNSL photo -

After work on the new museum was forced to a standstill due to a pending environmental review of the Giant Mine site, Mining Heritage Society co-ordinator Tracy Breitbach says things are back on schedule.

"We were sort of held up with what was going on with the government and the environmental review at the Giant Mine area," she explained. "Now that has been approved and there's work commenced out there, we can more seriously fundraise and get more work done for the museum."

The annual Beer Barge event this past June garnered some $20,000 for the project, which Breitbach said is currently being directed toward structural renovations at the former Giant Mine recreation hall - the museum's future home.

"We have finished gutting the interior of the rec hall, so now we're at the stage where we're putting up interior walls and flooring," she said. "Next year will be siding, removing the asbestos and putting in a parking lot."

Over the past year, the society advocated for restoration of the A-Shaft headframe, a smaller structure in the vicinity, in light of the necessary deconstruction of the iconic C-Shaft. However, Breitbach said those efforts were unsuccessful.

"The A-shaft is scheduled to be demolished next year, which is unfortunate. We're sad about that," she said. "If we were allowed to work on it earlier, we might have been able to save it."

She added they are still hopeful a private buyer or the GNWT will step forward and finance the preservation of Con Mine's Robertson Headframe. She said the heritage society believes restoration figures provided by the city were inflated.

"We do know from the reports what would be needed to go into it and there were some misconceptions of how much it would really cost," she explained. "It would be a shame if it was to go down because it is symbolically probably the last headframe ... it is sort of a symbol of the past and what the North once was."

Concentric Engineering has estimated it would cost $370,000, in maintenance costs and structural repairs to revitalize the headframe, plus an additional $500,000 for full remediation of the site.

Breitbach said the society's strategic plan for the next five years will focus solely on getting the museum off the ground and developing the surrounding site in collaboration with the Giant Mine remediation team to include walking trails and outdoor displays.

"The area where the museum is, is a very public accessible area. Now we are free to pursue it more actively than we were," she said. "People will be able to look at these old engines and things that were used in mining that are no longer used. We have a pretty extensive collection of things we took from various mines in the NWT."

Along with a number of artifacts and displays examining the mining process, Breitbach said the intent is to focus on the deeper societal implications as well.

"(The NWT) was a very important part of Canada as far as geological and mining exploration," she said. "But it's not just about mining, it's about the communities that formed here ... what it's like living in a mining community, in a remote, isolated place where you're dependent on a barge for your annual supply of goods."

She said although the mining industry is not as prominent in Yellowknife and the territory as it once was, the historical aspect is something that will always fascinate and attract people.

"We attract artists and photographers - there are lots of people who have lived here and come back, who have worked for the mines and want to see these things," she said. "Whether mining leaves or not, it's always going to be a part of what we were and something to learn about - it's part of the history."

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