Robertson Headframe slated for destruction
Iconic part of Yellowknife's mining history could come down as soon as the end of April
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Friday, March 11, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A cherished icon of the city's mining past will plummet to the ground as early as next month, says the owner of the company that will carry out the demolition of Robertson Headframe.
Con Mine's Robertson Headframe, an iconic part of the Yellowknife skyline for nearly 40 years, is set to be demolished as early as next month. - NNSL file photo |
Scott Stringer, general manager of Newmont Mining Corporation, confirmed Thursday a contract has been signed for Rakowski Cartage & Wrecking Ltd. of Winnipeg to demolish the 249-foot steel headframe at the former Con Mine site.
Tristan Rakowski said Thursday that the company will use a controlled explosion to bring the headframe down the last week of April or first week of May.
"(We'll) push the button and roll it over on its side," Rakowski said.
Rakowski said a public notice will likely go out roughly 48 hours ahead of the explosion.
Prior to that, he said any potentially hazardous material will be removed. As well, several other parts of the structure will be removed.
The company has done countless similar headframe demolitions before, he said.
"It's a very simple project. This one is nice because there is a lot of room" surrounding the structure, he said.
Once the headframe is on the ground, all the material will be cleaned up and various components separated with structural steel sent for recycling. Work is expected to wrap up in July.
Rakowski, who had just returned to Winnipeg from Yellowknife, said people have expressed their disappointment to him about the work he'll be carrying out.
"No doubt that's a landmark for you guys," he said.
There have been multiple attempts to save the structure, with its distinctive redish orange and blue cladding, since the mine's closure in 2003.
Residents upset with the planned demolition in 2014 packed council chambers demanding the city try and save the headframe.
Negotiations began but Newmont would only transfer ownership if it was protected from any liability.
That roadblock lead the city to abandon its efforts a little more than a year ago.
Demolition of the structure is required by the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board under Newmont's abandonment and restoration plan.
"All known alternatives to the demolition of the Robertson Headframe that have been presented to date have now been exhausted," a mine site reclamation report filed to the board states.
Newmont estimated in that report that demolition would cost $360,720, although that was before the contract with Rakowski was signed. He declined to say how much the contract is worth.
Historian Ryan Silke has previously told Yellowknifer the construction of the headframe "reinvented" Con Mine.
The mine began operation in 1938 and was the first gold-producing mine in the Northwest Territories.
By the 1960s, the mine's production was marginal. When the price of gold rose in the early 1970s, the company that owned the mine at the time began work on the new headframe and the 5,400 foot shaft beneath it. The work, started in 1973, lasted four years and cost $20 million.
Miners took their last ride back up the shaft under the headframe on Nov. 28, 2003 before the gold mine closed for good.
Reclamation of the mine site has been ongoing, with only a few more structures to be demolished, including the headframe.
