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Fifty years of gold mining at Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories spurred northern settlement and produced millions of dollars in profits. But mineral processing also had catastrophic environmental effects and left a troubled legacy.
When two mining companies in Yellowknife began processing gold ore in the 1940s, they did so with little or no pollution controls. Giant Mine spewed thousands of kilograms of arsenic trioxide from its roaster stack into the environment, causing illness and death among people and animals, especially in the adjacent Yellowknives Dene community. Even after the companies installed controls, arsenic trioxide continued to enter the atmosphere and waterways. Eventually Giant Mine, the biggest polluter, would deposit the arsenic dust beneath the mine, leaving 237,000 tonnes of highly toxic material buried underground. For decades, the mining companies and the federal government hid the worst effects of the pollution, doubted their own studies, and resisted calls for action. Yet the Yellowknives Dene fought back with the support of labour unions and environmental groups, questioning the safety of the air and water in their community and the massive toxic deposit underground.
The Price of Gold traces the troubling history of one of Canada’s most contaminated sites but also the inspiring story of Indigenous, labour, and environmental activists who resisted the ongoing poisoning of their communities.
“This book is a good summary of Giant Mine from its beginning to today: an exposé of government inaction and malfeasance. It builds on archival records and adds discussion of industrialization and colonialism to provide broader context. From despair to hope, so we learn and never forget.” Kevin O’Reilly, former member of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories
“Historian John Sandlos and geographer Arn Keeling present a thorough and compulsively readable analysis of the slow-motion disaster that has unfolded at Giant Mine. The authors’ exhaustive research, supported and guided by local experts from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, covers a wide range of document sources as well as fresh oral history.” Seaboard Review of Books
“The Yellowknives Dene First Nation has watched as its ancestral land and waters have been penetrated to extract gold since 1938. With The Price of Gold, historians John Sandlos and Arn Keeling offer thoroughly documented evidence of the damage inflicted [and] have backed up their history with cleareyed research and deep digging into fact-filled reports, some of them hidden from public view.” Literary Review of Canada
“Dense with archival material and grounded in years of fieldwork, [The Price of Gold's] narrative is enlivened by oral histories, and the authors give space to Yellowknives Dene voices without appropriating them. While scholarly in its depth, the writing remains approachable, and for those willing to linger, the reward is a layered, sobering account that situates industrial development within the longer history of colonialism in Canada.” Canada's History