In 1979, rights-holder Amoco Canada Petroleum agreed with Dome Mines and Campbell Red Lake Mines Ltd. (which would both merge in 1987 with Placer Development Ltd. to form Placer Dome) to explore and develop the mineral resources.

The project included the construction of an 180 km (110 mi) all-weather road from Cochrane and a 45 megawatt transmission line, though they were mostly funded by the province.

However, the gold only existed in low grade concentrations, necessitating Open-pit mining that could process large quantities of rock.

Detour Gold was charged with 14 violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act but they were dropped in favour of Detour Gold pleading guilty to criminal negligence causing death and paying $2.6 million in fines, including $800,000 to the spouse of the worker.

[9] Another worker was critically injured when the dump truck he was driving in heavy fog rolled over the side of a haulage road to the tailings pond.