The past year saw continued rapid development of mining activities in the Northwest Territories. Out of 7,670 claims thus far filed, no fewer than 1,500 were staked in 1939. Activity was concentrated chiefly in the Yellowknife, Great Slave Lake, and Great Bear Lake districts. A small settlement had grown up in Yellowknife which was granted limited governmental autonomy during the year. Four water transportation companies were put into operation from the railhead at Waterways, Alberta, into the Northwest Territories, in addition to three serial services. A winter tractor road was cleared from Grimshaw, in the Peace River district of Alberta, to Hay River Settlement on Great Slave Lake.
Comparatively little governmental activity occurred during the year. Among the most important ordinances enacted by the Commissioner of the Territories, with the advice and consent of the Council, were regulations establishing a Territorial liquor store with monopoly rights, which provided fixed prices for all liquor sold in the Territories, and the decree, already referred to, setting up a local administrative district in Yellowknife. Ordinances were also enacted licensing banks and regulating the activities of the legal profession.
Mining results continued to be favorable. The mines of the Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company in the Yellowknife area had a combined production for 1939 of approximately $1,600,000. The Eldorado Gold Mines, Ltd., with high grade pitchblende silver deposits at Great Bear Lake, yielded an output valued at about $1,500,000.
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