The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
A new book depicting the prominent rise of a small gold claim on the shores of Snow Lake, to what may soon be the richest gold mine in Manitoba's history, will be available to the public in the summer of 2005. Mining Manitoba - The Nor-Acme Gold Mines Ltd. Story has a target date to be on the shelves in June 2005, says the book's author, Jim Parres. The 16-chapter book will follow the Nor-Acme deposit's legacy from being staked, through the Old Britannia Mine's closure and subsequent phoenix like rise, to the uncertainty and eventual continuation of the present day New Britannia Mine. The manuscript also tracks the rise in fortunes of the author's grandfather, Christopher Richard Parres, his father, A. L. 'Lew' Parres as well as his own, as they interweave through the ups and downs in the history of Nor-Acme's massive low grade deposit. One of the things that the author feels will make the book as enjoyable and interesting to read as it was for him to write, is a string of letters between his grandfather and a Saskatoon man who ventured to the Big Apple (New York) arranging financing for development of the claim. "We have a series of letters from C. R. Parres at Herb Lake to G. H. Clare in New York and vice versa," said Jim Parres from his home in Thunder Bay. "It's not often you come across material like this that is involved in the making of a gold mine." Parres says that the book will be a narrative as well as being historical in content and will feature interviews with a number of the people who worked the mine back in the late 40s and 50s. When asked why he decided to write the book, Parres replied, "Because from 1924 to 1987 my family was so involved with the claim and the mine. And also because it is such a great story in that the mine has survived one closure and one near closure and now it appears they have found enough new, better grade ore, to give the mine a few more years production." Mining Manitoba - The Nor-Acme Gold Mines Ltd. Story will be available for purchase through the Flin Flon Library as well as a location yet to be determined in Snow Lake.
