What is that drilling operation doing on Yellowknife’s Con Road?

If you live in Yellowknife’s Con trailer park or near Rat Lake, you probably noticed the drilling that’s beginning along Con Road.

The drilling is part of the Con Mine remediation.

Miramar Northern Mining, which is remediating the former gold mine, is installing monitoring boreholes.

In a presentation at the start of the year, Miramar said the boreholes are related to stability monitoring for a stope – an underground tunnel where ore was previously mined – that extends toward Rat Lake.

The work began on June 3 and will wrap up on or around June 17, Miramar said.

Con Mine, for decades a major gold producer alongside Giant Mine at the city’s other end, closed in 2003 and is in the final stages of remediation.

More recently, exploration company Gold Terra has begun work to assess whether enough gold remains on the Con property to restart a mine there. (The current drilling along Con Road isn’t associated with that project.)

Around six million ounces of gold were extracted from Con between 1938 and 2003. Gold Terra has said it believes another two million ounces may remain.