Industry funds half of $20-million BC Museum of Mining restoration

Vancouver – The mining industry in British Columbia is constantly fighting an image battle, trying to convince people that the industry’s environmental practices have advanced dramatically in recent decades and that mining, disruptive as it may still be, is necessary, beneficial to the economy, and well regulated.

The effort shows on many fronts, the latest of which is a $14.7-million upgrade to the B.C. Museum of Mining. And what many people may not realize is the Britannia Project, as it is known, has been funded almost entirely through donations from mining companies and industry individuals.

The B.C. Museum of Mining is in Britannia Beach, on the edge of Howe Sound between Horseshoe Bay and Squamish. Anyone who drives the Sea-to-Sky Highway is hard-pressed to miss it, given that the historic mill building reaches 20 steep stories up the side of a hill. And the site has been even more obvious over the last two years as the mill building, which was starting to fall apart, has been given a $5-million facelift.

The work on the mill building was the front-runner to the $14.7-million upgrade to the rest of the museum, which includes 14 other historic mine buildings and gives visitors the chance to go underground in an old mining tunnel. The Britannia Project should be complete by the end of the summer.

The restored museum will boast a new Visitor Centre, being built at a cost of $3.72 million. Funding for the centre came primarily from two prominent members of Vancouver’s mining industry: Ross Beaty and Lukas Lundin. Beaty donated $2 million and Lundin donated $1 million; the other $722,000 came from Red Back Mining (RBI-T), of which Lundin is chairman.

News of the Beaty-Lundin donation sparked this article, but further investigation revealed that more than half of the funding for the $5-million mill restoration and the $14.7-million museum upgrade has come from mining companies and industry members. Teck Resources (TCK.B-T) donated more than $1 million, Barrick Gold (ABX-T, ABX-N) and Northern Dynasty Minerals (NDM-T) each donated almost $1 million, and Goldcorp (G-T, GG-N), Taseko Mines (TKO-T), and Keegan Resources (KGN-T) each handed over between $500,000 and $750,000. Another dozen mining and exploration companies donated smaller amounts, as did an equal number of individuals associated with the industry.

All told, mining companies and individuals have donated $10.7 million towards the museum. The federal and B.C. provincial governments almost matched those contributions, providing another $9 million.

Giving often sparks more giving, which may be the story behind another recent donation to the museum. In April Douglas Scheving, a self-described mineral enthusiast since childhood and Vancouver-based metallurgist, donated a 140-piece gold and silver collection to the museum. Compiled over the last 40 years, Scheving’s collection included pieces from mines across North America. The highlight of the collection is a palm-sized piece of quartz containing almost 7 oz. gold that originated from the Bralorne mine, just west of Lillooet in central B.C.

Scheving says he donated his prized rocks so that others may enjoy the collection as much as he does.