Malartic

Malartic

Malartic, Qué, Town, pop 3640 (2006c), 3704 (2001c), inc 1939. Malartic is located 70 km east of Rouyn-Noranda in northwestern Québec. It was established by Québec's Ministry of Mines, which hoped to end the proliferation of squatter camps that had sprouted up around the gold mines in this part of the Abitibi region during the gold rush of the mid-1930s. The town was named after the first gold mine, which was possibly named after the comte de Malartic, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm's aide-de-camp. It developed near 3 of the largest gold mines in Québec - the Canadian Malartic, East Malartic and Malartic goldfields - and the population reached its peak (5983) in the early 1950s. Malartic's economic and urban structure was deeply affected in the 1960s by the decline in the region's mining industry and the closure of the major mines. Despite these problems, the town lives on, its economy still based on its gold mines and its mining heritage with the Musée régional des mines.