The Red Lake Gold Mining District in northwestern Ontario is to Canada what the Carlin Gold Trend is to the United States, and what Witwatersrand District is to South Africa - the most prolific gold producing region in the entire country.

The Red Lake gold camp, situated in the Red Lake greenstone belt of Ontario, 535 km north-west of Thunder Bay, is an accumulation of Archean-age metavolcanic, metasedimentary and intrusive rocks comprising a portion of the Uchi Sub-province of the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield. The Uchi Sub-province is also home to other gold belts including the Rice Lake and Pickle Lake gold districts.

Red Lake is Canada's premier address for high grade gold. The world-class Red Lake "Mine Trend", a 35-square kilometre corridor with a 70 year history of discovery, has provided 4 major deposit discoveries in the last 12 years and over 30 million ounces of gold.

Gold was first discovered in the Red Lake area in the mid 1920s and by the mid 1930s several producing gold mines were in operation. The belt is recognized for its high-grade, highly profitable gold mines, which include the world class Campbell mine of Placer Dome and Red Lake mine of Goldcorp. Together, these two world class, highly profitable, high-grade gold mines have produced more than 18 million troy ounces of gold since going into production in 1948. Altogether, the two mines currently produce around 700,000 ounces of gold per year.