Draft:Sanshaw Gold Mine

Sanshaw Gold Mine was a gold mine that operated in the 1930s in Red Lake, Ontario, in an area that subsequently became one of the largest and most productive gold deposits in the world.

Sanshaw Mines Limited, incorporated in 1936, owned claims on White Horse Island, on Red Lake which was first staked by the Sanshaw Mines Syndicate. 15 diamond drill holes were drilled totalling 1160 m in 1936. Karl Brooks Heisey the President of Sanshaw Mines, Limited was the manager and driving force of the Sanshaw Gold Mine which was developed on White Horse Island during 1936–7. Heisey's crew uncovered a previously unknown well-mineralized shear and gold vein in 1936 which was the most important discovered up until that time in the Red Lake area.

The Sanshaw Mine name was a pun on the name of John Whitman Shaw, who was a consulting mining engineer operating in the Red Lake area. The mine was proceeding with diamond drilling and sinking a shaft "sans" (i.e. without) Shaw. Shaw's nickname in the mining industry was "turn em down Shaw" referring to his lack of support for many new mine proposals. The White Horse Island discovery was one of the few in the Red Lake area that didn't use John Shaw's services.

Orlac Gold Mines
Mining at Sanshaw was not restarted until after World War II when it reopened as Orlac Red Lake Mines, Limited ("Orlac"). During the period 1946-47 Orlac deepened the shaft to 139 metres and established levels at 68 and 106 metres (termed the Orlac deposit). During this period, Orlac drilled 701 metres of underground development, 15 surface holes that totaled 1,655 metres, and 523 metres in 54 underground drill holes.