About 15 kilometres east of Val-d’Or, you will find a unique underground and surface industrial-installation known as the CANMET Experimental Mine, administered by the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources.

Established in 1991, it was designed to respond to the needs of the mining industry through basic applied scientific-research. The former Beacon Gold Mine was deemed to be an ideal site for test-trials, product evaluation, concept validation, and personnel training in a secure underground-environment, not subject to production timetables.

The CANMET Experimental Mine of Natural Resources Canada works in close co-operation with the mining industry, mining-equipment manufacturers, universities, other major research-centres, as well as inventors, in order to determine the needs and goals of its partners, establish an appropriate scientific-methodology, and carry out the work in a highly-professional manner.