Golden Giant: Hemlo and the Rush for Canada's Gold

G.J. Daniel was a Toronto-based engineer.

This rambling tale of Canada’s newest goldfield is told in breathless prose that conjures up visions of lustrous gold streaming from underground caverns, and street-smart entrepreneurs wheeling and dealing in gigabucks.

Although this is a true story of the early development of the Hemlo gold find, the reality is somewhat less than the writer would have us believe. The Hemlo gold discovery is not the biggest in Canada — that distinction still belongs to the Hollinger-McIntyre deposit in Timmins. But it does rival, in expectations at least, the Kirkland Lake and Val d’Dor deposits. However, this fact does not detract from the book.

Matthew Hart has certainly captured the vitality and color of the Canadian mining scene. He has scratched the surface and exposed a really Canadian phenomenon, for there are few if any other places in the world where prospectors, promoters, investors, and mine developers have the freedom to scramble about their business with such relative order and openness. As the plot unfolds, we are introduced to a succession of characters, in a variety of locations, all involved in the search for the precious metal. The action is fast and furious, taking the reader from the bush to the boardroom and back again, to giant mining corporations and foreign banks. And everyone looking for gold.

I hope the film is next, but it has a hard act to follow.