1Overview
2Inside the Mill

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VENUS MILL

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CIMS

INSIDE THE MILL

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Machinery

Crushing

Crushing renders rough ore into smaller, same-sized pieces. The Blake-style jaw crusher was the first step for all ore entering the mill. Later in the process, the Gates Fine Crusher, Hardinge Mill, and Huntington Mill further pulverized the smaller pieces in preparation for concentrating.

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Blake Style Jaw Crusher

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G. Skuce

Sorting

Sorting is essential so that big pieces can be crushed smaller, and small pieces can be sent to the concentration stage. Crushing everything to the same size requires sorting, re-crushing, and sorting again, throughout the levels of the mill. Grizzlies (evenly spaced parallel bars) rotating trommels, callow cones, and callow screens were all used to sort finer particles from rougher pieces.

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Rotating Screen / Trommel

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G. Skuce

Concentrating

Concentration chemically and mechanically separates the valuable minerals from the ore to create mineral concentrate. This stage presented challenges at Venus Mill. Oil flotation tanks, Wifley tables, Frue vanners, and Deister sliming tables were installed over the years. In 1916, the mill reported heavy losses in the slimes, because the ore contained brittle and oxidized minerals. The oil flotation plant was installed in 1917, and the Deister sliming table in 1918. There were plans to install a cyanide plant in 1920, but it never happened. By whichever method, the resulting concentrate was dried and bagged for shipment. It was sent by boat to Carcross, and from there to smelters in Anyox and Trail, British Columbia.

Although the mill was intended to process all ore into concentrate, in June 1917 the high grade ore was still being sacked for shipment, and only low grade ore was being processed into concentrate at Venus Mill. Shipping large amounts of unprocessed ore was much more expensive than shipping smaller amounts of concentrate: this is evidence that the mill couldn’t reliably concentrate the higher-grade ore. Despite these challenges, at peak production the mill produced 10 tons of silver ore concentrate per day.

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Flotation Tank

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G. Skuce

Support Systems

Crushing, sorting, and concentrating were the main functions of the mill – but lots of other equipment was needed for these to happen. A wood-powered steam boiler powered the equipment and generated electricity for lighting. Steam heat kept the mill warm enough to operate during the cold winter months. Compressed air supplied air to the oil flotation tanks, and may have supplied air to pneumatic devices in the mine above the mill. Water was piped in from the lake to mix with the ore during milling and flotation. Tanks and bins collected material, while chutes and landers (box conduits for ore slurry) moved materials from one location to the next.

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Boiler / Steam Engine

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And most importantly – people! Workers operated equipment, installed and configured improvements, chopped and cut wood for the boiler, and ensured that all systems were working together smoothly. The number of workers at the mill ranged, with reports of 35 men in the summer of 1908, to 20 that winter, once equipment was installed and operational. At times, the mill operated around the clock in two 12 hour shifts.

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Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library, University of Toronto

Venus Mill was an investment in cutting-edge technology at a time when independent mining was shifting to industrial-scale mining across the Yukon. In the wake of the Klondike Gold Rush, the settler economy of the Yukon was based on mining. People were on the lookout for the next big rush. John Conrad was able to channel that desire into investment in his mines.

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Yukon Archives, G. Donaldson collection, 80/15 #21
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Whitehorse Star, June 21 1918.

Conrad had high hopes. Hard rock mining operations required money, expertise, and labour. Conrad's company dug shafts and adits into the mountain to extract the ore.

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Newspaper: Whitehorse Star, March 30 1906

Tramline and Hotel: Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library, University of Toronto

John Conrad
John Conrad
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frontispiece: "Colonel" John Howard Conrad (Barnaby Conrad III)

They invested in expensive mill equipment and multiple aerial tramways. The cost of transporting concentrate to market was high. Only a very rich deposit would make their investment worthwhile.

Venus Mill was built with only what was needed to begin operations as soon as possible. Local adaptations and new equipment were added over time. However, the mill did not function very long or very efficiently. With changing mineral prices, high transportation costs, and low-grade ore, the mill eventually had to close in 1912. Between 1916 and 1920, it was reopened and run by a series of other companies, each for a short time. After the summer of 1920, the mill was never used again to process ore.
Historic view near Yukon
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Yukon Archives, Mervyn-Wood family fonds, 98/87 #402
Venus Mill, 1975
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Yukon Archives, Richard Harrington fonds, 79/27 #71. Photographer Richard Harrington
Shirley Van Campen
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Yukon Archives, Shirley Van Campen fonds, 2001/162 #6
Tagish Lake mountains
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CIMS

Present Day

Present day Scene 13
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YG Photo

Venus Mill is a massive conservation challenge. The steep slope, high water, ice, erosion, vandalism and theft all contribute to the deterioration of the mill. The wharf and the buildings that used to stand at the base have already crumbled.

Traces of the silver mining legacy remain, like Venus Mill and aerial tramway towers. The Tséi Zhełe/Sinwaa Éex'i Ye/Conrad Historic Site, just over 5 km north of the mill, is a place where C/TFN and Government of Yukon are working together to tell the many interconnected stories of this area.
Top Mountain Texture (Documetation Section)

Documentation

Documentation allows us to gather detailed information about the mill over the years. Government of Yukon, Historic Sites Unit has partnered with digital documentation experts through Carleton Immersive Media Studio (Carleton University) to document the mill structure using 3D scans, panoramic photographs, as well as drone images to map the site’s topography.

Bottom Mountain Texture (Documentation Section)
Point Cloud Model

3D scanned pointcloud of Venus Mill capturing the exterior and interior conditions from July 2023

Group of Images showing documentationVenus Mill Overview Drawing
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