Gold Jobs

At Noranda, in western Quebec, an old prospector slammed down four bags of gold ore on a hotel bar and shouted: "You don't have to figure what this rock runs to the ton; it assays by the pound." At the O'Brien mine near Kirkland Lake, Ont., speculators caressed a new-found slab of what mining men call "jewelry"--a ten-pound chunk of practically pure gold worth $2,000. At Noranda's golf course, golfers played around two gold-drilling sites smack in the middle of a fairway. The gold stock market reached its highest point in four years.

Gold fever ran its highest temperatures in Ontario's remote Midlothian township. There Prospector Felix Roche found a seam of gold-rich green rock at least 425 feet wide. The site is reached by portaging through a chain of lakes. Just seven days later, the 36 square miles of Midlothian township were staked solid.

The Canadian Government was delighted. But it was less interested in the opening of new gold mines than in the possibility of increased postwar employment in the gold fields. In the peak year (1941), 33,500 men worked in the Dominion's gold mines. Said Deputy Mines Minister Charles Camsell last week: "The gold mines will employ 67,000 men at the very minimum soon after the war ends."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.