Coal

COAL is the most valuable mineral produced in BC. In 2013 coal accounted for revenues of more than $4.8 billion, more than half of the province's total mineral output, excluding petroleum and natural gas. Coal also accounts for about one third of BC's MINING employment and the province is Canada's largest coal exporter. In 2010, 9 coal mines were operating in BC: Quinsam on VANCOUVER ISLAND near CAMPBELL RIVER, Brule at CHETWYND, Wolverine and Trend near TUMBLER RIDGE, and Elkview, Line Creek, Coal Mountain, Greenhills and Fording River in the ELK R Valley in the southeast corner of the province. By 2015, however, all the mines in the northeast were either closed or had suspended production following another decline in the market.

Coal mining began on Vancouver Island in the middle of the 19th century under the auspices of the HBC (see COAL MINING, VANCOUVER ISLAND). On the mainland, significant development of coal deposits came in the 1890s, with the construction of railways into the southeast corner of the province by the CPR and its American rivals. Mines opened near FERNIE (Coal Creek), MICHEL–NATAL, MORRISSEY and HOSMER, all in the valley of the Elk R. The addition of these CROWSNEST PASS-area mines, along with deposits at MERRITT and northwest of PRINCETON, doubled the province's coal output and by WWI, coal accounted for 25% of the total value of BC mineral production. Following the war, as first ships, then railways, converted to oil as their main fuel, coal mining went into a slump and from the 1930s its contribution to the provincial economy was small. Then, in the late 1960s, coal mining rallied as operations expanded into new deposits in the southeast corner of the province. This was followed by development of the northeast coalfields at Tumbler Ridge in the 1980s. Most of the coal was exported for use by the Japanese steelmaking industry and for generating electric power. The Asian economic crisis of the 1990s, and the consequent decline in Japanese demand for BC coal, forced the commodity price down but prices rose again after the turn of the century and the main market remained Asia. By the 2010s coal had been targeted as a main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and as markets turned to alternative sources of energy demand fell. There are three major coal terminals used for shipping: Westshore Terminals at Roberts Bank south of the Vancouver, Neptune Bulk Terminals in N Vancouver, and Ridley Island at Prince Rupert.