Kitsault
| Kitsault | |||
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| Location in British Columbia | |||
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| State : |
 Canada
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| Province : | British Columbia | ||
| Regional District : | Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine | ||
| Coordinates : | 55 ° 28 ′ N , 129 ° 29 ′ W | ||
| Height : | 50 m | ||
| Time zone : | Pacific Time ( UTC − 8 ) | ||
| Foundation : | 1979 | ||
| Website : | www.kitsault.com | ||
Kitsault is an uninhabited Unincorporated Settlement in the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine , British Columbia , Canada . The 1979/1980 near a molybdenum - deposit established mining camp was abandoned already by 1982/1983 cessation of mining again and has since maintained.
geography
At Alice Arm - Fjord located, exists on the Observatory Inlet and the Portland Inlet direct access to about 110 km from the Pacific Ocean . The Alaska border is about 35 km away. Larger cities in the area are Prince Rupert (140 km) and Terrace (115 km). The small village of Alice Arm and the Nisga'a community Gits'oolh (formerly Gitzault Indian Reserve No. 24 ) are located in the immediate vicinity of the remote settlement .
Surname
The name Kitsault is derived from the Gits'oohl of the First Nation Nisga'a and means something like "a way back".
climate
Due to its location on a fjord opening to the Pacific, Kitsault has a very humid climate with around 1500 mm of precipitation per year. This falls mainly in winter and as snow. Temperatures fluctuate between around -4 ° C in January and 15.5 ° C in July.
history
prehistory
The oldest traces of human settlement are around 12,000 years old when immigrants from Asia settled in America across the Bering Bridge after the last Ice Age . The area was mapped in 1793 by George Vancouver .
It became of mining interest in 1911 when silver was found on Lime Creek , a small stream that flows through the settlement . The staked claims were mined in the 1920s and early 1930s, but molybdenum , which later became so important, was only mined briefly during the First World War . In 1956, Kennco Explorations (Western) Ltd. discovered on Widdzech Mountain ( ⊙ ) a large molybdenum deposit, which was mined between 1968 and 1972 by B. C. Molybdenum Ltd., also a subsidiary of Kennecott Copper Corporation.
Creation of the mining settlement
Towards the end of the 1970s, molybdenum prices on the world market increased tenfold within a short period of time . One of the main reasons for this was that the US , then the main producer of molybdenum, restricted the sale of state supplies.
The new owner, the mining company AMAX of Canada Ltd., decided to start mining the deposit again. Since the area is relatively remote, a settlement for 1200 miners and their families was planned and built between 1979 and 1980. Around 50 million dollars were invested in this. 100 single-family houses and seven apartment houses with around 200 apartments were built, plus a comprehensive infrastructure with a hospital, school, library, shopping center, community center, theater, sports hall, swimming pool, power line, paved streets, etc.
The market reacted to the high prices as early as the early 1980s. Molybdenum, which was produced in the huge porphyry copper deposits during copper extraction , was now extracted as a by-product. In addition, the element, which is used in particular in steel processing and in catalytic converters, was used more effectively, recycled and replaced by other raw materials . As a result, world market prices fell after a few years to the value before the boom. This made extraction uneconomical and mining stopped in 1982. In the short operating phase from 1981 to 1982, around 4,000 tons of molybdenum ore were extracted in the open pit . This produced around 12,000 tonnes of tailings per day , sludge residues from processing , which were dumped into the Alice Arm via pipelines at a depth of around 50 m.
Attempts at re-use
If the residents did not leave the settlement independently, Amax bought the houses back. In the fall of 1983 Kitsault was again uninhabited. However, Amax continued to employ a guard for the abandoned site. The electricity and energy supply were not given up either. In 1999 AMAX was acquired by Phelps Dodge , but this company did not give up the site either, but arranged for it to be sold in 2004.
In 2005, the Indian-born American entrepreneur Krishnan Suthanthiran acquired the settlement, industrial facilities, forest and coast unseen for $ 5.7 million from Phelps Dodge. The concession for the mine remained in the hands of the mining company. Suthanthiran invested another $ 2 million, renovated buildings, renewed the sewage system and plumbing, and kept the keeper busy. Here, in “Heaven on Earth”, he planned an eco-settlement where a center for health education should be built in seclusion , “a refuge for the best and brightest minds on the planet”.
However, the molybdenum prices had risen significantly again since 2004. Avanti Mining Inc. acquired the mining rights in October 2008, just as prices fell again in connection with the banking crisis, and was planning to resume mining. This led to legal differences, as the mine required access to the sea, but Suthanthiran's ideas of an ecovillage were contrary to this. In 2014 Avanti had all the necessary licenses. An agreement had also been reached with the Nisga'a, who were particularly hard hit by the environmental damage in the 1980s. However, world market prices had fallen below profitability in the long term, so that the company, which has called itself Alloycorp Mining Inc. since the end of 2014, rolled back the project.
Suthanthiran was now pursuing a new plan. In 2013 he founded Kitsault Energy Ltd. Their aim is to use the strategic location near the Pacific Ocean to build a loading station for liquefied natural gas . From here it is primarily intended to supply the Far East market , particularly China. The infrastructure with a pipeline from the Fort Nelson and Dawson Creek gas fields requires an investment of US $ 20–30 billion. He received the necessary approval in January 2016.
He now employs over a dozen people during the summer months and has invested around $ 25 million in maintenance to date.
literature
- Norma Kerby: Kitsault: The Geology, Ecology, and History of Kitsault, BC 2011, ISBN 978-0-9869313-0-7 ( kitsault.com [PDF; 4.1 MB ]).
Web links
- The ghost town that never decays. In: TRAVELBOOK. May 17, 2016, accessed April 22, 2018 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Meret Steiger: The ghost town in which the light is still on. In: L'essentiel. January 29, 2017, accessed April 30, 2018 .
- ↑ Climate & Weather in Kitsault. In: climate-data.org. Retrieved April 30, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Peter Kausch, Jörg Matschullat, Martin Bertau, Helmut Mischo (eds.): Raw materials management and social development: The next 50 years . Springer Spectrum, 2016, ISBN 978-3-662-48854-6 , p. 31 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ a b Repurposing BC's Ghost Town. In: BCBusiness. November 5, 2012, accessed April 24, 2018 .
- ^ Molybdenum's Perfect Storm. In: CaseyResearch. March 1, 2005, accessed April 30, 2018 .
- ↑ Avanti delivers positive prefeasibility for Kitsault . In: The Northern Miner . tape 55 , no. 44 , December 21, 2009 ( alloycorp.com [PDF; 69 kB ]).
- ^ Stuart Burns: Molybdenum Market Crashes. In: L'essentiel. November 13, 2009, accessed April 30, 2018 .
- ^ Avanti Mining Inc .: Change of name. In: MinenPortal.de. December 1, 2014, accessed April 24, 2018 .
- ↑ Plan to take company private clouds future of BC moly mine. In: mining.com. July 4, 2016, accessed April 24, 2018 .
- ↑ Kitsault Energy website
- ↑ Kitsault LNG the latest to receive export approval from NEB. In: Pipeline News North. January 26, 2016, accessed April 30, 2018 .