Mi n i n g
An aerial view of Canadian Zinc's Prairie Creek
Mine, Northwest Territories. Photo courtesy
Canadian Zinc Corp.
Prairie Creek – a mine in the making
by Dr. Edward Schiller
When industry, government and community stakeholders cooperate to ensure
an economic project has the opportunity to succeed, it is a win-win situation
for all participants. Such is the case with
Canadian Zinc Corp.'s [CZN-TSX; CZICFOTCQB] 100%-owned Prairie Creek Mine
located in the Mackenzie Mountains of
the Northwest Territories. The Prairie
Creek Mine has near complete infrastructure, including a mill concentrator, 5 km
of underground workings, support buildings and a 170-km winter road, providing
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access from the Liard Highway. When
fully operational, the project will provide
training, employment, and other benefits
to the nearby First Nation communities
who are supporting the commencement of
operations.
Discovery & Development
Prairie Creek was originally discovered in
1928 and remained idle until 1966 when
Cadillac Exploration did some preliminary surface and underground sampling
between 1966 and 1969. Further under-
ground work took place from 1970 to
1980. In 1980, the famous Hunt brothers,
Nelson Bunker and William, as part of
their attempt to corner the silver market,
acquired the property and proceeded to
spend $64 million ($200 million in today's
dollars) advancing the project within three
months of going into production, but due
to the collapse of silver prices, the brothers lost the property in 1982. Nanisivik
Mines acquired the property in 1991
then optioned it to San Andreas Corp.
which later became Canadian Zinc. During
february 2013
