Canadian Heritage Gallery
Canadian Enterprises Gallery

Placer Dome Web Site
Profile
Image One

Placer Dome Inc. is one of the world's largest gold producers with a history spanning the 20th century. Placer Dome was established in 1987 by the amalgamation of Placer Development Limited of Vancouver, and Dome Mines Limited and Campbell Red Lake Mines Limited of Toronto. Of the predecessor companies, Dome Mines Limited was incorporated in Ontario in 1910, Placer Development in British Columbia in 1926, and Campbell Red Lake Mines in Ontario in 1944.

The Dome Mine in Canada, on which Dome Mines Limited was built, is still producing gold after more than 80 years, and the Campbell Mine of Campbell Red Lake Mines Limited is one of the highest-grade gold mines in the world, producing continuously since 1949.

Placer Development Limited's first earnings came from dredging gold from the Bulolo River in New Guinea in the South Pacific during the 1930s. In order to accomplish this project, the disassembled dredges were flown from the coast over the mountains to the interior of the country because there were no roads, in what was then the greatest peacetime airlift ever undertaken.

On this side of the Pacific, Dome Mines grew with the startup of Sigma Mines in Val d'Or, Quebec. In 1946, Campbell Red Lake Mines in northwestern Ontario was added, and later, the Kiena Mine in Val d'Or. Dome Mines also developed two more mines in northern Ontario, Detour Lake and Dona Lake.

Since then, Placer Dome has continued to develop mines in Canada and throughout the world. Today, Vancouver based Placer Dome operates 16 mines in Canada, the United States, Chile, Australia and Papua New Guinea and is actively exploring for gold in more than 20 countries on five Continents. For Placer Dome, the 21st century looks just as bright as its first century in Canada.