After Gold

This thesis examines the northern Ontario town of Kirkland Lake as a testing ground for the curation of post-mining remains along a remediative network that addresses social, ecological, and economic challenges faced by post-mining communities. The origin of Canada’s Abitibi gold-belt, in which Kirkland Lake is located, can be traced back 2.6 billion years to fault lines which brought gold-rich magma to the surface of the earth. This process led to a gold rush beginning in 1901 and the subsequent settlement of the area in the form of single-industry mining communities that retrace this ancient mineral break. With the globalization of the mining industry and improvements in extraction technologies, communities that have endured boom-bust cycles are now threatened by permanent mine closure. These communities will be left with the legacy of post-mining remains from the collapsed industry upon which they were founded. After Gold will reveal that these remains are not a product of natural processes, but have come to represent an important chapter in the evolution of the region’s landscape vernacular and its peoples’ histories.