A piece of the Porcupine's mining history was torn down this week.
Demolition of the mine manager's house in South Porcupine started yesterday. A crew was back at the site today, however the green and white house was already reduced to a pile of rubble.
The demolition of the house is part of the contract to remove the former Hollinger office building in the coming weeks as well, according to Goldcorp communications and corporate social responsibility co-ordinator Pierre Noel.
"The house had many health and safety concerns and needed significant investment to be maintained. The building unfortunately had to come down," wrote Noel in an email.
"As for the old Hollinger office building, it too had many long standing issues, including asbestos. The cost to operate the building was very high and unfortunately it could not be re-purposed without extensive costs. Last year the decision was made to condemn the building and start taking it down. Initially demolition crews are removing the remainder of damaged construction material within the building and sorting it in garbage bins for proper disposal. Starting next week crews will be removing more hazardous construction materials from the roof and subsequently the building will be deconstructed."
The historic house was the original Dome mine manager's house and was moved to its location on Gold Mine Road in the 1990s.
Kari Richer posted this video of the start of the demolition to Facebook:
After more than 100 years in operation, the Dome underground mine permanently ceased its operations Dec. 31, 2017.
The company is currently working on Project Century, a large-scale initiative that would double the depth and diameter of the existing open pit above the Dome underground.
Earlier this year, mine manager Marc Lauzier said for the project all of the existing infrastructure would be torn down, including the mill, guardhouse, offices and shops. At that time, he said there is no plan to move the back road.
