The Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited company was originally organized in 1927 as Eldorado Gold Mines Limited to develop a gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 mine in Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

. Its president Gilbert LaBine

Gilbert LaBine

Gilbert LaBine, OC was a Canadian prospector who in 1930 discovered radium and uranium deposits at Port Radium, Northwest Territories. He has become known as the father of Canada's uranium industry. LaBine was president of Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited from its start in the late 1920s to 1947...

 later found radioactive deposits at Great Bear Lake

Great Bear Lake

Great Bear Lake is the largest lake entirely within Canada , the third or fourth largest in North America, and the seventh or eighth largest in the world...

, Northwest Territories

Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...

 in 1930, which led to the development of the Eldorado Mine

Eldorado Mine

Eldorado Mine is located at Port Radium, Northwest Territories, Canada.It is also known as Port Radium, a name adopted for use at this specific site after 1942...

 at Port Radium

Port Radium, Northwest Territories

Port Radium is a mining area on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada. It included the settlement of Cameron Bay and the Eldorado Mine and Echo Bay Mine. The name Port Radium did not come into use until 1936 and at the time it was in reference to the region as a whole...

. They built a state-of-the-art refinery in Port Hope

Port Hope

Port Hope mar refer to:*Port Hope, Michigan, U.S.*Port Hope, Ontario, Canada**Port Hope Aerodrome**Port Hope Conference**Port Hope Panthers**Port Hope railway station**Port Hope Transit...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 in 1933. Radium

Radium

Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...

 production took place between 1933 and 1940 when World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 closed European markets for radium material. The other byproduct of the company was silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

, copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

, and uranium

Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...

 salts. Uranium was useless until scientists realized the enormous energy potential of the uranium atom. The company reopened the mine at Port Radium in 1942 to supply the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 military with uranium products. The Canadian Government took over the company by purchasing share control in 1943, and in early 1944 the name was changed to Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited.

The crown corporation held a monopoly on uranium prospecting and development in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 until 1948. Together with a discovery of the Port Radium deposits, the Eldorado company opened the Beaverlodge Mine at Uranium City, Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

. It entered production in 1953. In the 1960s the nature of sales changed when the United States military ceased purchasing of Canadian uranium ores for the purpose of atomic weapons, and from then on uranium was produced for power plants. During this period the name of the company was changed to Eldorado Nuclear Limited. The crown corporation was dismantled in 1988 and merged with assets of the Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation(SMDC)

Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation

The Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation was a provincial crown corporation established in 1974 by the Government of Saskatchewan to manage the government's interests in exploration and mining in the province...

 to become Cameco Corporation

Cameco

Cameco Corporation is the world's largest publicly traded uranium company, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. In 2009, it was the world's second largest uranium producer, accounting for 16% of world production.-History:...

. The old records of the company are housed in the National Archives of Canada.