Kirkland Lake.

• Position: COMMUNITIES OF OPPORTUNITY

Ksirkland Lake has ridden the waves of mining busts and booms over the years but it appears it will be mooth sailing for a few more decades.

Mayor Bill Enouy said the current boom in gold mining is more than a cycle and expects the reserves the mines have will tide them over for 25 to 30 years.

"Kirkland Lake Gold has increased its workforce by four times in the last few years so they are employing around 800 people now and they are looking at growing," he said. "Other mines are on the brink of opening like Northgate Minerals, Queenston and Armistice."

Although there are plenty of jobs, the town is feeling the crunch of an accommodation shortage. The opportunities in the town, the mayor said, are for those in the construction industry

"What we need right now in Kirkland Lake is for developers to come in and build an apartment complex or row houses," Enouy said. "That is the biggest opportunity for some entrepreneur."

Kirkland Lake, located about 140 kilometres southeast of Timmins on Highway 66 (off Highway 11), is known for its NHL hockey players as much as it is for gold. In the 1950s, seven gold mines were operating on its main street but by the late 1990s, all had shut down.

Its fortunes changed in 2001, when Kirkland Lake Gold acquired 13,000 acres of five contiguous formerly producing gold mines, which had historically produced 21 million ounces of gold, and undertook an extensive exploration program.

"It had been a 40-year slide for us but now things are going great," Enouy said. "Historically the gold mine towns have done better when the rest of the world isn't doing so well. We are looking at the price of gold going higher and if it doesn't, then it won't be down enough to worry about,"

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