The Britannia Mine Museum, formerly British Columbia Museum of Mining, is a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Britannia Beach Britannia Beach ( Sḵwx̱wú7mesh: Shisháyu7áy, ) is a small unincorporated community in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District located approximately 55 kilometres north of Vancouver, British Columbia on the Sea-to-Sky Highway on Howe Sound. ...

, 55 km kilometres north of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada, on the

Sea-to-Sky Highway Highway 99 is a provincial highway in British Columbia that serves Greater Vancouver and the Squamish–Lillooet corridor over a length of . It is a major north–south artery within Vancouver and connects the city to several suburbs as well ...

Howe Sound Howe Sound (french: Baie (de /d')Howe, squ, Átl'ka7tsem, Nexwnéwu7ts, Txwnéwu7ts) is a roughly triangular sound, that joins a network of fjords situated immediately northwest of Vancouver, British Columbia. It was designated as a UNESCO Biosp ...

. It is governed by the Britannia Beach Historical Society. The museum preserves and presents to the public information and artifacts related to British Columbia's mining industry.

National historic site

The museum is the site of Mill No. 3, also called the

Concentrator In the evolution of modern telecommunications systems there was a requirement to connect large numbers of low-speed access devices with large telephone company 'central office' switches over common paths. During the first generations of digital netw ...

. This 20 storey building, a gravity fed concentrator for ore processing, was designated as a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...

in 1987 (with a ceremony in 1988). The Britannia Mine was an important source of copper ore for almost 70 years and during the 1920s and 1930s it constituted one of the largest mining operations in Canada. The gravity-fed concentrator was highly innovative, as, for example, in the use of bulk

froth flotation Froth flotation is a process for selectively separating hydrophobic materials from hydrophilic. This is used in mineral processing, paper recycling and waste-water treatment industries. Historically this was first used in the mining industry, wher ...

History

The Britannia Beach Historical Society was established in 1971 as part of BC's centennial plans. Its goal was to preserve the history of

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

activities in

. The museum opened in 1975 as the BC Museum of Mining. Mill 3 underwent a $5 million exterior rehabilitation between 2005 and 2007 to replace the siding, roof, and windows. After an additional $14.7 million redevelopment project, the museum was renamed the Britannia Mine Museum in October 2010. There are displays concerning the importance of

minerals In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed ...

in daily life, and on the history of the Britannia Mine, including its environmental remediation. The funding for this, the Britannia Project, came from government, industry donors and individuals.

Buildings and site

The museum oversees 23 historic industrial, administrative and domestic buildings, over 7000 artifacts, 9500 archive photos and 3000 archival documents and maps. Visitors are given a train ride through a historic haulage tunnel, driven in 1914 to transport ore from the original mill buildings to the shore. Historic mining and lighting equipment is demonstrated to the visitor. The historic nature of the site has resulted in many feature films and TV productions being filmed there, most notably '' Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed'', the episode "

Paper Clip A paper clip (or paperclip) is a tool used to hold sheets of paper together, usually made of steel wire bent to a looped shape (though some are covered in plastic). Most paper clips are variations of the ''Gem'' type introduced in the 1890s or e ...

" of ''

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who ...

'', ''

Okja ''Okja'' (; ) is a 2017 science-fantasy action-adventure film directed by Bong Joon-ho with a screenplay by Bong and Jon Ronson from a story by Bong. The film is about a young girl who raised a genetically modified "super pig" (the titular Okja) ...

''., ''

The Man in the High Castle (TV series) ''The Man in the High Castle'' is an American dystopian alternate history television series created for streaming service Amazon Prime Video, depicting a parallel universe where the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan rule the w ...

'' and ''

MacGyver Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series ''MacGyver''. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in the 2016 reboot. In both p ...

References

External links

*
Britannia Mine Museum
at Mining Association of British Columbia {{coord, 49.6233, -123.2044, type:landmark_region:CA-BC, display=title Mining museums in Canada Museums in British Columbia National Historic Sites in British Columbia Copper mines in British Columbia