SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The mine shafts are gradually filling with water as the business that once pumped money into the NWT capital takes its leave.

The ore has been dug out and now Newmont Mining is left with the clean up. They're tearing abandoned buildings down, scouring rocks that once cradled toxic discharge and reseeding soil on the 340-hectare property.

Newmont general manager Scott Stringer is one of about 15 people still working at the mine site. They are in the process of dismantling the blend plant which was used to store arsenic trioxide. - Elizabeth McMillan/NNSL photo

Before long, the deep shafts that served as an underground portal for five million ounces of gold were shipped toward the skyline, will be sealed with concrete.

On an early September morning, a lone piece of heavy machinery is building a demolition road - creating a path for mounds of debris to leave the site that was once a reason to build roads to Yellowknife.

As general manager of Newmont Mining's Northern Operations, Scott Stringer is one of the roughly 15 people still working on the site.

The mine has gone through several owners, first Cominco and Rycon Mines Ltd. in the 1930s, then Nerco Minerals Ltd. bought it in 1986. Miramar Mining Corp., which is owned by Newmont, took over in 2000.

When the mine closed in 2003, the new owners had to come up with a reclamation plan - a map for how to return the site to the government at industrial standards.

"It's a lot of clean up to do but the company started a long, long time ago and that puts us in a better position now," says Stringer.

What was once the mine's power house is now a mess of rubble.

Workers have begun sifting through chunks of electrical wire, corroded steel and heavy wooden beams.

They're selling off inventory and will send the salvageable material south and bury the rest in the site's landfill.

"If it's in good shape, it's worth sending down," he says.

"We've done several campaigns through the mill already to recover any gold-bearing material. There's some gold value to it," Stringer says as he scans the debris next to the half-dismantled mill.

Gradually, the mine's industrial silhouette is receding. The C-1 headframe will be on the chopping block before Oct. 15. If it doesn't come now by then, it may be too cold to continue using water to control the dust.

The autoclave, blend plant and the rest of the mill will wait till next year.

Surveying the mine's landscape, it's difficult to envision the community of workers who once made the mine a community to rival Old and New Town. There were more than 800 unionized workers by 1951.

Far from being a public space, no trespassing signs dot the fenced-in property. Stringer says Newmont employs 24-hour security. His biggest concern would be vehicles driving over the caps on the hazardous sites, which are required to act as a barrier between the toxic substances contained underneath and the rain that seeps into groundwater.

Even after Newmont vacates the land, four permanent areas will remain. They're hoping to put a final cap on all hazardous sites in 2011.

Layers of concrete and sand will seal off the areas that still contain toxic substances - byproducts of years of gold production. Rocks placed around the perimeter will guard the liner from vehicles driving over.

The cap on the area will be contoured to drain off, so ground water doesn't seep into that area.

"Part of the closure plan is to shed the water away so that it doesn't get back down there," Stringer says. "We worked quite hard over the past two years to remove all the hydrocarbons and hazardous materials... It still tests high in arsenic, obviously."

The tailings ponds, once full with water from the mines, are empty. But Newmont must still build a new water treatment plant because the company will continue treating water from the next 25 years.

What will happen to the land after Newmont leaves remains to be seen.

"It'll all be industrial. There'll be activity out here but it'll be industrial-type activity, there won't be any houses built," says Stringer.

Since construction began in 1937, the Con Mine fueled Yellowknife's economy. As a community, it supported sports teams and social events. It housed the territory's first hospitals and even a bowling alley.

The 25-storey Robertson headframe, with its striking blue and red roof, was built in the 1975 and quickly became a symbol of the growing city. The building is the tallest in the territory, the shaft beneath it one of the deepest in the world.

Temperatures in the depth of the shaft could become as hot as 26 C with 90 per cent humidity, according to a history of the mine written by the NWT Mining Heritage Society.

As buildings come down across the mine site, the future of the Robertson headframe remains in limbo.

The iconic Yellowknife tower was slated to be demolished after the mine closed but Newmont has committed to holding off until 2010. The city must come up with a plan before it's slated to be demolished next summer.

Stringer says delaying the shaft's demolition makes meeting the 2011 exit date for the site a "tough target" but he says there's historical value he hopes the city can preserve.

But as the company pushes forward with its reclamation plan and the city has yet to come up with a plan for the landmark.

"It's a step away from our closure plan, so we're just working with the city to try to give them an opportunity or some form of a business car," says Stringer. "There's a responsibility that goes with it. It's long term."

Despite the apparent interest from people who want to save the structure, the city didn't receive any actual ideas when they issued a call for proposals last spring.

City councillor Mark Heyck, who chairs the city's heritage committee, says the committee is considering recommendations made by a feasibility study and will discuss how to move forward at their Sept. 16 meeting. They'll then approach council about forming an action plan.

So far, Heyck says cost estimates are rough. If the city does assume responsibility, the shaft will have multiple uses - for instance, building a viewing platform and incorporating the shaft on a tourism trail.

"The idea of an indoor vertical garden drawing heat from the mine below, using solar panels from the south side of the building to power it, that seems to be a neat approach to take," he says.

Heyck says some of the suggested ideas are more practical than others but there is still room for innovation.

"There's also the possibility that the city would put it out there to the community at large and the private sector and say, 'do you have any bigger, bolder and more ambitious plans that you'd like to advance,''' he said in a recent interview.

Heyck says it's still too early to say the structure won't be demolished.

"In other instances, the city has worked out deals where the cost of demolition is transferred to the city in exchange for the city taking responsibility for the structure, so that's a possible solution if things don't fall into place by late next year."

He hopes the city is able to put together a plan sooner, rather than later.

"I'd love to see something move forward in the next year so we can actually have a definite plan but failing that, I think the next best thing would be for the city to be able obtain the funds, so we have enough time to come up with ideas and plan what to do with the building without fear of a large financial liability on the part of the city and the residents."

Heyck says preserving the shaft has personal value - for himself, and the city.

"It's an iconic structure in Yellowknife, everybody recognizes it. Whenever I'm down south and I'm flying home, it's always the first thing you look for and see on the horizon," he says. "As a symbol of Yellowknife's mining history, it's one of the most durable and certainly one of the most endearing."