B.C. brings back Britannia Mine site

As public and private interests in British Columbia move forward with cleaning up and reclaiming the old Britannia Mine site, Canada's Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn has weighed in with additional support.

Lunn attended the opening Sept. 29 of the mine's renovated concentrator mill, now part of the BC Museum of Mining. Earlier, he told members of the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia at a breakfast meeting in Vancouver that he would instruct Natural Resources Canada to contribute another C$5 million in federal funding to the redevelopment effort underway at the Britannia mine.

"This is a project that is important for the mining industry, where we can showcase what we do, that we can continue to grow," Lunn said.

He referred to a partnership the B.C. provincial government has forged with private interests to transform the abandoned and polluted mine site at Britannia Mountain into a healthy residential and commercial center.

The initiative's foundation is the Britannia Remediation Project, in which the B.C. government set out to correct acid rock drainage accelerated during 70 years of copper mining. The goal was to stop the pollution and reclaim the contaminated watershed of Howe Sound.

Macdonald Development Corp., meanwhile, purchased the company town adjacent to the mine in 2003 and is working with the provincial government to develop the area. Town residents were allowed to purchase their homes, and many did so in November 2005, becoming the first individual land owners in the town's history.

Mine helped economy

Copper was accidentally discovered at Britannia Mountain in 1888, but it was 1904 before the mine shipped its first ore. By 1929, the Britannia mine was the largest copper producer in the British Commonwealth. During the next 10 years, the mine also began to produce zinc and pyrite. Copper prices rose again during World War II, and in 1946, the growing operation was unionized and had its first strike.

Low copper prices and the lure of the city life eventually saw Britannia Mine Co. reduced to seven employees, and in 1959, to bankruptcy. Its assets were taken over by the Howe Sound Co.

In 1963, Anaconda Mining Co. bought the property. A new ore zone and new contract for the miners led to robust production for the next 11 years. Some 300 employees produced an annual average of 60,000 tons of concentrate.

Eventually, rising operating costs and taxes took their toll, and the Britannia Mines shut down in 1974.

A year later, the BC Museum of Mining opened to the public at the mine site.

In 1989, Canada declared the mine a national historic site. The designation recognized the Britannia's important contribution to the country's economy by producing vast quantities of copper ore for nearly 70 years, Canadian officials said.

Mill becomes national landmark

They also singled out the concentrator mill with its 18,000-plus windows as a building of historic and architectural importance. Completed in 1923, the gravity-fed mill was highly innovative, particularly in its use of bulk froth flotation. During the life of the mines, more than 60,000 people of many cultures and backgrounds worked and made their homes in the area. Today, it is the last remaining example of the gravity-fed concentrator mills that characterized early hardrock mining operations in Canada.

B.C. tackles pollution issues

Over the decades, the area around Britannia Beach became extremely polluted and gained a reputation as one of the most notoriously contaminated, historic mining operations in North America.

Water in Britannia Creek is extremely clear and transparent, suggesting a pristine environment. Yet the clear water is actually an indication that no living creatures can survive in it and it is not potable.

Runoff and rainwater that flow through the mine's abandoned tunnels combined with oxygen and the high sulphide content of waste rock to create a condition called acid rock drainage.

ARD is caused by a chemical reaction, which results in highly acidic runoff containing large concentrations of dissolved metals such as copper, cadmium, iron and zinc. The polluted water flowed directly into Howe Sound via Jane and Britannia creeks. As much as 450 kilograms of copper was entering Howe Sound daily.

Bringing Britannia back

In 2000, the B.C. government negotiated an agreement with the remnant companies of the original mine owners. The companies paid C$30 million into a remediation fund in exchange for not being held liable for the environmental damage.

Golder Associates became project manager and helped develop and implement the remediation plan, said Barry Azevedo, managing engineer for the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Lands.

The provincial government began a major study to determine the best way to clean up the site. The University of British Columbia also joined the original mine owner, Copper Beach Estates Ltd., in installing a research laboratory at the 2200 Level of the mine that would allow university researchers to design earth plugs to seal mine adits for extremely long periods of time.

The facility was installed in December 2001 and has had the "spin-off" benefit of eliminating all pollution flowing into Jane and Britannia creeks and hence, into the surface waters of Howe Sound.

Runoff and rainwater is treated in a high-density sludge treatment plant built under terms of a private-public partnership arrangement between British Columbia and Epcor Ltd., a water treatment company based in Edmonton, Alberta. It began operation in November 2005.

Since start-up of the water treatment plant, pollution from the mine site is under control, B.C. officials say.

The next stage of remediation will involve cleaning up outlying areas, Azevedo said. "We're also doing environmental monitoring because we are leaving a fair bit of (the pollution) in the ground," he said in October. "The plan is to be finished next year, but we may need to do additional work."

Preparing for the Olympics

Today, Britannia Beach, a 30-minute drive north of Vancouver, has been converted from a derelict mine site into a sustainable community. Development, including 100 new homes, is taking place, and the commercial area is set for expansion into a tourist village with boutiques and shops on a mining theme.

Highway improvements and waterfront development are also underway in preparation for the Winter Olympics in 2010 in nearby Whistler, B.C.

Britannia Development Corp. is also promoting refurbishment of the mine's buildings as a historical interpretative center.

The C$5 million that Lunn committed to securing will advance the project, Azevedo said.

"It's what we hoped for. By doing remediation, investment would come, and it's working," he added.