In the NWT, with an economy largely based on mineral wealth, the end of gold mining days hit hard.
Luckily, diamonds were found north of Yellowknife, and money and jobs flowed again.
Now the possibility of the end of diamond mining in the territory looms, while the government struggles to define what the future economy may look like.
One company thinks it has an answer.
Avalon Rare Metals, a Toronto-based junior minerals company, has found an abundant deposit of rare earth metals 100 kilometers south-east of Yellowknife.
Located at Thor Lake, the deposit was recently renamed Nechalacho, "a point where you can almost dock," in a ceremony involving the Yellowknives Dene.
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