[1] The mine was 270 miles by air north of Yellowknife and approximal 850 miles north of Edmonton,[2] on the edge of the Arctic Circle[1] and therefore only accessible by small charter aircraft equipped with floats or skis, or larger charter aircraft flying to the south shore of the lake, followed by a boat journey.

During a field trip along the east arm of Great Bear Lake in August 1900, James McIntosh Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada noted evidences of iron, copper, uranium and cobalt in the vicinity of Echo Bay.

The first concentration plant was a big erection at the site by Allis-Chalmers of Canada in 1933–1934,[4] with a radium refinery built at Port Hope, Ontario.

Concentrates and cobbed material were shipped by barge and airplane to rail head at Fort McMurray, Alberta, then by train to Port Hope.

[citation needed] The underground workings were deepened and the crown corporation sought out additional deposits of uranium across Canada.

[1] The Early Proterozoic Echo Bay Group consists of tuffs, flow rocks, argillite, quartzite, and dolomitic limestone.

Uranium ore deposits occur within veins and stockworks which cut through this group, mainly along four parallel fault zones aligned roughly southwest–northeast from Great Bear Lake.