Gold was first discovered in Saskatchewan in the North Saskatchewan River near Prince Albert in 1859. Saskatchewan began producing gold in small quantities in the early 1900s and possibly earlier from panning and dredging operations on the North Saskatchewan River and its tributaries. Gold production in the province has been from placer operations on the North Saskatchewan River and from gold and base metal mines in the northern Shield. Of the total production in the province, approximately 90 per cent has originated as a by-product from the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company's copper-zinc mine at Flin Flon.

In the period prior to the First World War, gold was discovered on the north shore of Lake Athabasca and in the Amisk Lake area near the present sites of Creighton and Flin Flon. Further prospecting in the 1920s and 1930s culminated in discoveries in the La Ronge volcanic belt, Flin Flon and Beaverlodge areas. By the late 1930s and early 1940s gold was being produced in significant quantities at the Box Mine on the Crackingstone Peninsula and in minor amounts from the Prince Albert (Monarch/Pamon), Graham and Henning-Maloney mines near Flin Flon. Other deposits produced small amounts of gold during trial mill runs.

The gold boom of the late 1980s resulted in the first significant gold exploration effort in the province's history. Gold exploration figures reached their peak of $55 million in 1988. Large areas of high gold potential still remain unexplored. Five new gold mines have entered production in Saskatchewan since 1987.

More than 200 gold occurrences are known and, with the exception of a few placers, all are in the Precambrian Shield. Recent exploration and development during the 1980s focussed on the La Ronge metavolcanic belt and more recently on the Glennie Domain.

Saskatchewan Industry and Resources has promoted exploration by initiating regional detailed mapping, geochemistry and geophysics programs in the La Ronge Belt and Glennie Domain.