Previously, it existed only as a very small prospecting camp accessible only by float plane, but after a viable mineral deposit was found in the late 1950s a permanent settlement began to be established.

[11] In late 2008, Donner Metals Ltd. announced that Xstrata Zinc Canada was in the process of completing a scoping study at their jointly owned Bracemac-McLeod property.

As well, Matagami has a small tourism industry due to the popularity of fishing and hunting in northern Quebec.

Matagami lies in a sparsely populated area several parallels north of Montreal and Quebec City.

Compared to other continents, Matagami is on the same parallel as the hot Rhine shift around Mannheim in Germany, whose yearly mean temperature is about 11 °C or 20 °F hotter.

Matagami is served by a community radio station, CHEF-FM, as well as by a rebroadcaster of Première Chaîne's CHLM-FM.