Point Aconi (2021 pop. 113) is a

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

community in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

at the northeastern tip of

Boularderie Island Boularderie Island (pronounced "bull-awn-dree") is an island separating the Cabot Strait from Bras d'Or Lake on the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. It takes its name from Louis-Simon le Poupet de la Boularderie, who was g ...

. It derives its name from the

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John ...

of the same name, Point Aconi. Point Aconi is located in the

Cape Breton Regional Municipality Cape Breton Regional Municipality (often referred to as simply "CBRM") is the Canadian province of Nova Scotia's second largest municipality and the economic heart of Cape Breton Island. As of 2016 the municipality has a population of 94,285. The ...

and fronts the

Cabot Strait Cabot Strait (; french: détroit de Cabot, ) is a strait in eastern Canada approximately 110 kilometres wide between Cape Ray, Newfoundland and Cape North, Cape Breton Island. It is the widest of the three outlets for the Gulf of Saint L ...

along the northeastern shore of Boularderie Island.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Point Aconi had a population of 113 living in 56 of its 59 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 134. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Coal mining

The region sits over the northern end of the Sydney Coal Field, a large coal field which extends at an angle under the Cabot Strait. Specifically, the Point Aconi area is home to the Hub coal seam of the Sydney Mines Formation (Upper Carboniferous). Sydney Mines Point Aconi Seam 038

As such, the area around Point Aconi has been commercially mined since the early 19th century, first by the

General Mining Association The General Mining Association was a London coal mining company operating in Nova Scotia. It was formed by Rundell & Bridge in 1827. It held a mining monopoly in Nova Scotia until 1858. History In 1788, King George III had drafted a lease i ...

(GMA), then by the

Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

(SCOTIA) and later the

British Empire Steel Corporation The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (also DOSCO) was a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company. Incorporated in 1928 and operational by 1930, DOSCO was predated by the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO), which was a merger o ...

(BESCO) and its successors, the

Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (also DOSCO) was a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company. Incorporated in 1928 and operational by 1930, DOSCO was predated by the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO), which was a merger o ...

(DOSCO) and the federal

Crown corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

Cape Breton Development Corporation The Cape Breton Development Corporation, or DEVCO, was a Government of Canada Crown corporation. It ceased operation on December 31, 2009, after being amalgamated with Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC). DEVCO was organized primarily in ...

(DEVCO). Point Aconi was home to the last underground

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

in operation in Nova Scotia, the Prince Colliery, which was opened by DEVCO during the global energy crisis in the early 1970s. A limited access road, Highway 162, was constructed from the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...

Highway 105 to the south in order to relieve local roads of traffic congestion during shift changes at the mine, as well as from dump trucks hauling the coal. The then-provincial Crown corporation Nova Scotia Power Corp. constructed the

Point Aconi Generating Station The Point Aconi Generating Station is a 165 Megawatt, MW Canada, Canadian electrical generating station located in the community of Point Aconi, Nova Scotia, Point Aconi, Nova Scotia, a rural community in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. A ...

adjacent to the mine in the early 1990s to take advantage of the readily available fuel source. The Prince mine was closed in November 2001, ending underground mining in Nova Scotia. However, the Point Aconi GS continues to operate as it is the most modern thermal generating station in Nova Scotia and provides lower emissions than older plants of a similar size. Following the closure, several proposals were made to

strip mine Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

remaining coal deposits near the surface in the Point Aconi area. However, the proposal met with strong community opposition, citing fears of contamination and changes to groundwater supplies, as well as industrial nuisance through deteriorated air quality and noise which would lead to lower property values. Eventually,

Pioneer Coal Limited Pioneer Coal Limited is a Canadian mining company based in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. It was founded in 1980 by John Chisholm, owner of Nova Construction Company Limited. The company currently operates two open pit coal mines: * Stellarton Surfa ...

was granted permission to conduct a reclamation mining operation starting in 2006. By 2012, some 25% of the area had been reclaimed.

Lighthouse

A lighthouse was first erected at Point Aconi in 1874. The last lighthouse, a glass fibre tower standing tall, was erected in 1989. It was destroyed by fire in 2014.

Climate

The highest temperature ever recorded in Point Aconi was on 10 August 2001, and the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 8 February 1993.

References

Point Aconi on Destination Nova Scotia
{{Authority control Communities in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality Designated places in Nova Scotia Mining communities in Nova Scotia General Service Areas in Nova Scotia