Top 50 mining companies surge to new record near $2 trillion valuation

Frik Els | October 15, 2025 | 

At the end of the third quarter the MINING.COM TOP 50* ranking of the world’s most valuable miners had a combined market capitalization of just under $1.97 trillion, up nearly $700 billion so far in 2025 with most of the gains accumulated in the third quarter. 

The total stock market valuation of the world’s biggest mining companies has finally surpassed the previous record high reached more than three years ago and in the process transformed the ranking of the upper echelons. 

Trends in the global mining industry that have been documented in these pages for more than a decade have finally broken through to the mainstream with critical minerals suddenly on everybody’s lips – from the US president down to the proverbial taxi driver sharing stock picks.

The weakness in the greenback played a part in the blowout quarter – the ranking is based on a company’s market capitalization in local currency on its primary exchange and then converted to USD where applicable. 

Rampant precious metals prices, including the thoroughly revived platinum group metals, can take much of the credit, although amid the general buoyancy the 60-plus percentage gains in PGM prices were not enough to see producers re-enter the ranking.

The best performing list shines with gold and silver counters, including an eye-popping six-fold increase for erstwhile minnows like Coeur Mining (which timed its acquisition of Mexican silver mines to perfection) and a 305% jump for Fresnillo, the London-listed silver miner controlled by Mexico’s Peñoles.

Apart from gold and silver, rare earths have been the standout sector. Squeaking in at no. 49 after soaring by 280%, Perth’s Lynas Rare Earth joins Las Vegas-based MP Materials, which rocketed up the charts in Q2 after a groundbreaking deal with the Pentagon. 

MP Materials is now up nearly 500% and China Northern Rare Earth, the only rare earth stock to ever feature in the top 50, in sympathy is up 160% since the start of the year. 

Changes in the top tier dominated by diversified giants and gold and copper specialists have also seen a thorough reshuffle. 

The global mining industry is trying to consolidate to attract more large-scale investors to the sector but so far the results have been mixed at best. 

Since inception, the MINING.COM TOP 50 was headed by two firms  – BHP and Rio Tinto – the only miners with consistent market capitalizations above $100 billion (with a wobble here and there).  Now there are five firms with the distinction and likely more to come. 

Attempted combinations by the two Melbourne-based companies (including of the two of them in 2008) have gone nowhere.  BHP’s failure to buy Anglo American last year saw the company pivot to organic copper growth with up to $10B being spent on Escondida alone, the world’s largest copper mine (for now).  

The chances of Rio Tinto’s off-again on-again love affair with Glencore being consummated, looks slim and new CEO Simon Trott’s restructuring looks more like preparation for spin-offs than company level M&A, particularly after the head-scratching Arcadium Lithium buy.  The now 20-year old Alcan deal probably also still haunts boardrooms in Melbourne.

While BHP still has a clear lead of nearly $30 billion to the nearest competitor, Rio Tinto was for a few trading sessions this week pushed from its usual slot by Chinese champion Zijin Mining.

The diversified giant gained 61% in value over the course of the third quarter alone and is now worth $114.8 billion compared to Rio’s $115.6 billion.  In a less frenzied environment Rio Tinto’s more than respectable 14% advance over three months would’ve drawn praise. Now it’s a laggard.

Xiamen-based Zijin, with a string of investments in gold, copper and more recently lithium made over the last few years became only the fourth company to top $100 billion in market value (Vale climbed above that level – briefly – in 2022). 

Southern Copper, the NYSE-listed mining arm of Grupo Mexico, also joined the rarified atmosphere of triple digits during the quarter thanks to a 38% jump in Q3.  

Like other copper majors Southern Copper is looking to add to its operating assets with an aggressive investment strategy north of $10 billion in Mexico alone, but the company’s valuation is probably now too rich for any would-be acquirer. 

Newmont also joined the triple digit club this week. Unlike its acquisitive peers, shortly after swallowing Australia’s Newcrest Mining at the end of 2023 for $17 billion, Newmont embarked on a multi-billion dollar divestiture program.

Agnico Eagle and Kirkland Lake Gold combined in 2022 and the Toronto-based group continues to bolt on assets, making it a candidate for the $100 billion mark should gold continue its death defying rally. Agnico has doubled in value this year and is worth $89.0 billion. 

Of the recent mega-deal announcements, the one between Anglo and Teck Resources looks most feasible, but this agreement has also run into trouble, even before regulators get a hold of it.  

Teck Resources sharply lowered its 2025 copper guidance due to operational hiccups at its Quebrada Blanca and Highland Valley mines, testing Anglo’s commitment. Particularly after Anglo’s careful concession on headquarters for the merged entity under pressure from Ottawa.  

Teck is one of the worst performers for the quarter and as of now, an Anglo-Teck would hardly crack the top 10 with a combined value of a shade under $63 billion, placing it just ahead Freeport-McMoran at number eight.  

Freeport, often mentioned as a takeover target, has run into its own copper production problems. Last month a catastrophic mud rush at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia released approximately 800,000 tonnes of material into underground workings, forcing the Phoenix-based company to slash production forecasts. 

Freeport is now relatively cheap for a 1.3 million attributable tonnes of copper per year operation (before Grasberg suspension) after being one of only a handful of stocks showing declines over the three months. But companies that have kicked tires, may wait until operations in Indonesia get back on track.

Glencore, which tried and failed to acquire Teck a couple of years ago and only ended up with its coal assets, has also been another perennial underperformer and ended up on the worst performer table again this quarter.

The Swiss miner and commodities trader and no. 4 copper producer behind Freeport, just holds onto the top 10 but is still trading well below its 2011 IPO price in London.  

Since the transformative 2013 Glencore–Xstrata merger of equals that was anything but  – still the biggest mining deal in history  – Baar has always been the bridesmaid but never the bride. 

No mining M&A conversation is complete without Glencore.  The Ivan Glasenberg and Mick Davis boardroom brawl born out of the mean streets of Johannesburg, was also one of the most entertaining in and outside mining. 

Will Glencore and Rio Tinto finally tie the knot? You’d love to see it.   

NOTES:

Source: MINING.COM, stock exchange data, company reports. Share data from primary-listed exchange on October 14/15, 2025 close of trading converted to US$ where applicable. Percentage change based on US$ market cap difference, not share price change in local currency.  

As with any ranking, criteria for inclusion are contentious. We decided to exclude unlisted and state-owned enterprises at the outset due to a lack of information. That, of course, excludes giants like Chile’s Codelco, Uzbekistan’s Navoi Mining (the gold and uranium giant may list later this year), Eurochem, a major potash firm, and a number of entities in China and developing countries around the world.
Another central criterion was the depth of involvement in the industry, and how far upstream is the bulk of its revenue, before an enterprise can rightfully be called a mining company.

For instance, should smelter companies or commodity traders that own minority stakes in mining assets be included, especially if these investments have no operational component or even warrant a seat on the board? This is a common structure in Asia and excluding these types of companies removed well-known names like Japan’s Marubeni and Mitsui, Korea Zinc and Chile’s Copec. 

Levels of operational or strategic involvement and size of shareholding were other central considerations. Do streaming and royalty companies that receive metals from mining operations without shareholding qualify or are they just specialised financing vehicles? We included Franco Nevada, Royal Gold and Wheaton Precious Metals on the basis of their deep involvement in the industry.

Vertically integrated concerns like Alcoa and energy companies such as Shenhua Energy or Bayan Resources where power, ports and railways make up a large portion of revenues pose a problem. The revenue mix also tends to change alongside volatile coal prices. Same goes for battery makers like China’s CATL which is increasingly moving upstream, but where mining will continue to represent a small portion of its valuation.  

Another consideration is diversified companies such as Anglo American with separately listed majority-owned subsidiaries. We’ve included Angloplat in the ranking but excluded Kumba Iron Ore in which Anglo has a 70% stake to avoid double counting. Similarly we excluded Hindustan Zinc which is listed separately but majority owned by Vedanta. 

With other groups like Mexico’s Penoles where refining and chemicals make up a substantial part of the business where possible the Top 50 would include separately listed operating subsidiaries that are dedicated to mining. This is also why Southern Copper represents Grupo Mexico in the ranking.
Many steelmakers own and often operate iron ore and other metal mines, but in the interest of balance and diversity we excluded the steel industry, and with that many companies that have substantial mining assets including giants like ArcelorMittal, Magnitogorsk, Ternium, Baosteel and many others.

Head office refers to operational headquarters wherever applicable, for example BHP and Rio Tinto are shown as Melbourne, Australia, but Antofagasta is the exception that proves the rule. We consider the company’s HQ to be in London, where it has been listed since the late 1800s.

Please let us know of any errors, omissions, deletions or additions to the ranking or suggest a different methodology: email Frik Els at fels@mining.com with Top 50 in the subject line. 

 

A dam destroyed their river — 61 years later, two First Nations fought for justice

A new documentary — ‘Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again’ — tells the story of the northwestern ‘B.C.’ landscape and the communities taking care of it

BY STEPHANIE WOOD, THE NARWHAL ● ARTS, FEATURES ● MAY 13, 2025

Saik’uz councillor Jasmine Thomas and her baby (left) and Elder Minni Thomas sit in the forest. Photo courtesy National Film Board of Canada/Lantern Films/Experimental Forest Films

This story originally appeared in The Narwhal and is reprinted here with permission and light style edits.

---

Three Saik’uz environmental monitors walk along a stretch of the Nechako River — though all they see is a stretch of boulders with no water in sight. When the Kennedy Dam was built in northwestern “B.C.” in 1950, 70 per cent of its water was diverted. 

In the 75 years since, the Nechako has seen a dramatic decline in salmon.

“It had to be deep,” James Thomas, one of the monitors, says as he looks down at the rocks. 

“We used to go up and down this creek to hunt and fish,” he says. “A lot of us had to change our ways … [The dam] made a big impact.”

The scene unfolds in a new documentary, Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again.

In it, Stellat’en director Lyana Patrick delves deep into how Saik’uz and Stellat’en First Nations battled mining company Rio Tinto Alcan and “B.C.” in court for more than a decade, seeking justice for damage to the Nechako and to have their constitutional fishing rights recognized. 

The dam flooded about 900 square kilometres of Dakelh and Wet’suwet’en territory. Photo courtesy National Film Board of Canada/Lantern Films/Experimental Forest Films

The Nechako is a tributary of the “Fraser River.” While data for the Nechako is not readily available, according to Watershed Watch, just 26 adult Early Stuart sockeye returned in the Upper Fraser in 2024, compared to 45,000 in 1984. In the Lower Fraser, salmon have been cut off from the vast majority of their former habitat due to dams and other infrastructure.

In the documentary, Patrick depicts the scale of dams and the sometimes unseen — or ignored — costs.

“The pockets of a few shareholders are lined, beautifully lined, at the expense of everything downstream — the animals, the trees, the humans,” she said in an interview. 

“That, to me, is what the dam represents — it represents greed.”

The film will premiere in “Vancouver” on May 3 in the DOXA Documentary Film Festival.

The Kenney Dam, pictured, diverted 70 per cent of water from the Nechako River, and salmon populations plummeted. A new documentary details two First Nations pursuing justice. Photo courtesy National Film Board of Canada/Lantern Films/Experimental Forest Films

Rio Tinto Alcan ‘fought tooth and nail not to let a drop of that water go’

The documentary was made by an entirely Indigenous crew, including Secwépemc cinematographer Sean Stiller. It centres community members and the relationships they have with the land and each other.

The camera and stories capture the scale of the dam, as well as the cumulative impacts of other industries and climate change on the landscape.

“We absolutely wanted to convey the scale and the scope — and I don’t think we’ve even completely captured that,” Patrick said. “I’m not sure how you can.”

The dam flooded about 900 square kilometres of Dakelh and Wet’suwet’en territory in central “B.C.”

It was built to provide power to an aluminum smelter and today is operated by Rio Tinto Alcan, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto.

Saik’uz environmental monitors Caleb Nome (left), Ashley Raphael and James Thomas work on the territory. Photo courtesy National Film Board of Canada/Lantern Films/Experimental Forest Films

Kenney Dam Road, which leads to the reservoir, cut through Stellat’en reserve land when it was built, affecting people’s access to hunting grounds and opening up the land to other industries, Patrick said.

Forests were cleared for logging and agriculture while mines and pipelines were expanded, resulting in a degraded ecosystem, she explained — and the resulting extraction and emissions are still contributing to climate change.

In the film, her father and former Stellat’en chief, Archie Patrick, likens cumulative effects to “taking poison.” Take a little bit at a time, it won’t harm you right away — “but in time, it will kill you.”

Archie knows people may wonder why the First Nations brought this case forward decades later and why Indigenous people didn’t “resist” at the time.

The answer can be found in the Indian Act, which prohibited Indigenous people from obtaining legal representation until 1951 — the year after the dam was built. 

“We couldn’t hire lawyers,” he says. “We could go to jail.”

Former Stellat’en chief Archie Patrick (right), Deane Carlson (centre) and William Wissler look out on the reservoir. Photo courtesy National Film Board of Canada/Lantern Films/Experimental Forest Films

The First Nations sought to hold Rio Tinto Alcan accountable for damage to the ecosystem and to demand water be restored to the Nechako. The court battle waged on from 2011 until 2024.

“Alcan has fought tooth and nail not to let a drop of that water go,” Maegan Giltrow, legal counsel for the First Nations, says in the documentary.

Court found province responsible — not Rio Tinto

In 2022, the B.C. Supreme Court recognized the nations’ rights to fish in the Nechako, and that the dam had significantly harmed the river.

But the court decided responsibility lay with the province, agreeing with Rio Tinto’s argument that “B.C.” authorized the company to operate as it did.

The First Nations appealed, but in 2024 another judge agreed Rio Tinto was not responsible.

That was a disappointment for some community members, though the appeal did put a greater duty on the Crown to consult with the nations in regulating the Nechako’s flow and avoiding harm to their fishing rights.

While they didn’t get everything they hoped for, better consultation is important: Patrick argued Indigenous governance will be “the bulwark against the harms that are going to come and the harms that are here already, like drought and wildfire and changing weather patterns — all of these crises that are impacting everybody.”

Rio Tinto has committed $50 million to the Nechako Environmental Enhancement Fund to improve the watershed, in an agreement with the province. Photo courtesy National Film Board of Canada/Lantern Films/Experimental Forest Films

It was a long and arduous battle that not all First Nations choose to pursue — or are able to.

“Industry has deep pockets to keep us going a long, long time in the courts,” Patrick said.

In a written statement, a Rio Tinto spokesperson said it has been working with the First Nations since 2021 to evaluate the river’s condition and “explore long-term solutions to improve its capacity to support ecological functions, Yinka Dene cultural practices and economic activity.”

“After many decades of conflict, the Saik’uz First Nation and Stellat’en First Nation and Rio Tinto have embarked on a reconciliation journey, together with Nadleh Whut’en First Nation and the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, centred around our common goal of improving the health of the Nechako River,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

It said the company signed an agreement with the nations in January to study two major infrastructure projects that could allow “a more natural flow” in the river. 

“While there is a lot of work ahead of us, we remain committed to strengthening our relationship and progressing on this journey together with trust, respect and transparency,” it said.

Director challenged documentary norms

The film focuses on Indigenous sovereignty, and Patrick wanted to embody that in the process of making it, not just the final product, rather than continue the long history of extractive practices that take stories from Indigenous communities.

The film was made by Lantern Films and Experimental Forest Films and co-produced with the National Film Board of Canada. Lantern Films signed benefit agreements with the two First Nations and participants were asked for input on an early version. 

The team also compensated participants — which Patrick knows is thorny in the industry.

“Similar to journalism, you don’t pay people to do interviews, right?” she said. “You don’t pay people to be in your documentary.” 

But she decided that, for this project, compensation was a “crucial” way to honour people’s knowledge and energy. 

Stellat’en filmmaker Lyana Patrick scoops up water from the Nechako River. Photo courtesy National Film Board of Canada/Lantern Films/Experimental Forest Films

Filming took place between 2022 and 2024.

The film is anchored in her point of view and experience and how her relationship with her Stellat’en homelands and waters changed through making it.

She grew up familiar with the devastation of the land — but the documentary process brought her closer to the “beauty of it,” and how devoted people are to stewarding it.

Places that are burned, mined, damaged, are still “loved more than ever,” she said.

“That’s what this court case is about,” she explained. “It’s about having responsibility to those places.

“With climate change, that’s a shared responsibility now.”

Author

STEPH KWETÁSEL’WET WOOD, THE NARWHAL

Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood is a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh journalist living and writing in North Vancouver. In 2022 she won the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Emerging Indigenous Journalist award. She has worked with The Tyee, Media Indigena, CBC, CiTR 101.9 FM, and National Observer. She earned her Master of Journalism degree at the University of British Columbia.

Pembina Pipeline sees demand for potential expansion to Cedar LNG project

By The Canadian Press
Published: May 09, 2025 

The corporate logo of Pembina Pipeline Corp. is shown. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

The chief executive of Pembina Pipeline Corp. says he believes there will be enough demand to support an expansion to the Cedar LNG project on the B.C. coast as it looks to sign on more shippers for the first phase now in early construction.

Pembina has shortlisted the preferred counterparties, and has begun negotiating definitive agreements, Scott Burrows told analysts on a conference call Friday to discuss his company’s first-quarter results.

“They’re big, complicated agreements. We’ll do the right deal for Pembina, not the fastest deal for Pembina,” he said.

The US$4-billion floating liquefied natural gas export terminal in Kitimat, B.C., is a partnership between Pembina and the Haisla Nation. The first phase of the project was given the green light almost a year ago and is on track to come into service in late 2028. The cargoes of LNG — gas that has been chilled into a liquid state so it can be transported overseas on specialized tankers — will be bound for high-demand Asian markets.

ARC Resources Ltd. is to supply gas for about half of the plant’s capacity from the Montney shale in northeastern B.C. and northwestern Alberta.

Pembina has been looking to contract out its 1.5-millon-tonne-per-year share of capacity, and Burrows said talks are going well.

Based on conversations around bringing more producers into the first phase, Burrows said it appears a second phase would be welcome.

“Certainly the gas demand is there,” he said. “Based on early-stage negotiations on Cedar capacity, we believe there is demand for a Cedar 2.”

A question mark, however, would be whether there would be enough pipeline capacity to get the gas from inland to the coast, he added.

There are two other B.C. LNG projects in the works. Also in Kitimat, LNG Canada, a partnership between Shell and four Asian partners, is slated to start delivering shipments in the next few months. Meanwhile, Woodfibre LNG, owned by Pacific Energy Corp. and Enbridge Inc., is being built near Squamish, B.C., and is on track to be complete in 2027.

Also Friday, Pembina said it is not seeing a significant near-term financial impact related to Dow Inc.’s delay of a net-zero petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton.

Dow said last month it is still committed to the nearly $9-billion Path2Zero project in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., but that it has decided to push back the timeline due to weak market conditions.

Pembina was to supply and transport ethane to the project.

“To date, Pembina has not spent material capital to support the ethane supply agreement and will continue to progress these projects, but may now have more time available to execute them,” Burrows said.

On Thursday, Pembina reported earnings of $502 million for the three months ended March 31, up from $438 million during the same period of 2024.

That amounted to 80 cents per diluted share versus 73 cents a year earlier.

Revenue was $2.28 billion, an increase from $1.54 billion.

The Calgary-based company says it doesn’t expect any impact from U.S. tariffs on energy imports this year given much of its business is under contract.

It says it has also not seen any significant decline in activity from producers in Western Canada who use Pembina’s system to get their oil and gas to market.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2025.

Companies in this story: (TSX: PPL)

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

Kitimat is a district municipality in the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is a member municipality of the Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine regional government. The Kitimat Valley is part of the most populous urban district in northwest British Columbia, which includes Terrace to the north along the Skeena River Valley. The city was planned and built by the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) during the 1950s. Its post office was approved on 6 June 1952.^[4]

Kitimat's municipal area is 242.63 km² (93.68 sq mi). It is located on tidewater in one of the few wide, flat valleys on the coast of British Columbia. The 2016 census recorded 8,131 citizens.^[5]

The District of Kitimat Development Services situates the port of Kitimat as an integral part of the Northwest Corridor connecting North America to the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Rim.^[6]

History

[edit]

"Kitimat" in the Tsimshian language refers to the Haisla First Nation as the "People of the Snow". Before 1950 the Kitimat township was a small fishing village at the head of the Kitimat Arm of the Douglas Channel, a deepwater fjord.^[7]

The municipal town of Kitimat came into existence in 1951 after the Provincial Government of British Columbia invited Alcan to develop hydroelectric facilities to support one of the most power-intensive of all industries—the aluminum smelting industry.^[8] The company built a dam, 16 km (10 mi) tunnel, powerhouse, 82 km (51 mi) transmission line, a deep-sea terminal and smelter. The company also designed, laid out and assisted with the initial construction of the city. At the time, the combined development was considered "the most expensive project ever attempted by private industry."^[7]

Alcan employed the services of city planner Clarence Stein in order to ensure the community design facilitated an environment that would attract and retain workers, although Alcan intended it to not be a company town.^[9] Today, Kitimat benefits from the quality of planning resulting from the Garden City design concept. Stein's design kept industry well separated from the community with large areas for expansion. He also created looped streets surrounding an urban city centre mall and linked by over 45 km (28 mi) of walkways connecting to all areas of the community.

The substantial greenspace areas and future expansion concepts designed by Stein have been upheld to this day by the city planners, thereby resulting in a low-density settlement pattern interspersed with forested patches. Also, the Alcan-based city origin and land provenance remain documented in the form of restrictive covenants registered on title.^[10]

Economy

[edit]

Aluminum producer Rio Tinto is the main employer in the municipality. Local government, schools, small manufacturing and service/retail are secondary contributors. Secondary core activities include engineering, import of petrochemical products (methanol and condensate), and metal fabrication. Approximately $5 billion in manufacturing investment is anticipated in the 2010–2015 period with a further $5 billion-plus in the investigative stage over the next decade.^{[citation needed]} Anticipated investment includes an approximately $2 billion modernization to the Rio Tinto Alcan facilities and $3 billion in the Kitimat liquefied natural gas export development on Haisla Industrial Land at Bish Creek. The export facility would see natural gas piped in from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (particularly from shale gas developments such as the Montney and Horn River) and shipped to Asian markets.^[11] The LNG Canada project, a joint venture between Shell and affiliates of Petronas, Mitsubishi Corporation, Korea Gas Corporation and PetroChina would, if permitted, begin construction in 2015 of a gas pipeline from northeastern BC and a LNG export terminal with an expected lifespan of 30 years. The terminal, located on the Douglas Channel near the aluminum refinery, would be able to accommodate two LNG vessels at a time. Annual volume would be 24 million tonnes.^[12] In July 2014 the Financial Post reported that Apache Corp. will "completely exit" the Kitimat LNG mega-project planned for B.C.'s West Coast. The U.S. hedge fund Jana Partners LLC has pressured Houston-based Apache to sell its 50% stake in the BC shale gas plays.^[13]

Pending energy projects that have identified Kitimat as a strategic gateway include Pacific Northern Gas' Pacific Trail Pipeline (federal and provincial environmental assessments issued) and the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines (currently being reviewed by the National Energy Board).

Additional investigations into clean energy developments include a Kitimat port development project featuring break-bulk port facilities and consideration of the best uses for the former Eurocan Wharf.^{[citation needed]} In addition, the decommissioning of the former Eurocan pulp and paper facilities or a slimmed down operation are still under consideration. There is also renewed interest in mineral development potential in the Kitimat area. The neighbouring community of Terrace is also in advanced stages of approval for a number of clean energy projects along with the associated infrastructure for linking those projects to the provincial electrical grid.

Air services for the community are provided through Northwest Regional Airport, with connections to Prince George, Smithers, and Vancouver.

Kemano hydroelectric project

[edit]

In the 1920s, the provincial government of British Columbia extensively evaluated the province's hydroelectric generating potential. In the late 1940s, the Canadian Government sought to tap the untapped resources of northwest British Columbia. All this led to the identification of the Eutsuk/Ootsa/Nechako River drainage basin as a potential site for a sizable reservoir. The potential of this vast system of rivers and lakes prompted British Columbia to invite Alcan to conduct a detailed investigation of the area. Alcan was searching for a site for a large aluminum smelter, an activity requiring vast amounts of electricity. Alcan concluded that the area was more than adequate to generate the required electricity, and decided to build a smelter there. The timing was right because the post-World War II boom saw a rising demand for aluminum.

Between 1951 and 1954, after signing the agreement with the British Columbia government for land and water rights, Alcan undertook the Kitimat–Kemano Project, one of the most ambitious Canadian engineering projects of the 20th century.^[7] The project required not only building the Kenney Dam to reverse the Nechako River, but also boring a 16 km (10 mi) tunnel under Mt. Dubose, within the Coast Range, to the large hydroelectric Kemano Generating Station built under Mt. Dubose. Electricity from Kemano is transported 80 km (50 mi) across mountains via a custom built twin circuit transmission line. After avalanches tore away transmission towers, a catenary system was built.^[14]

In three years, 6,000 construction workers built the dam, tunnel, powerhouse, transmission line, smelter, and town.^[15]

The town of Kitimat was carved out of old-growth forest. The company invested over CA$500 million (equivalent to CA$3.3 billion) and employed over 35,000 workers over the five years required to build the Kenney Dam, the hydropower plant under Mt. Dubose at Kemano, a 250,000 tpy aluminum smelter, a year-round deepwater port, a townsite designed for a population of 50,000, and a paved highway to the outside world. As a result of this project other companies saw the potential of the area, resulting in further industrial development in the Kitimat valley.

LNG Canada terminal project

[edit]

On 1 October 2018, Royal Dutch Shell and its Asia partners gave formal approval to an estimated $40 billion investment into the construction of a new liquified natural gas port terminal project named LNG Canada, coupled with the construction by a subsidiary of TransCanada of a gas pipeline, known as the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, linking this terminal to the Montney, British Columbia, natural gas field.^[16][17]

When completed, LNG Canada will become the first Canadian LNG export ocean terminal, which will compete with other LNG terminals in the US, either existing or planned on the West (Alaska, Washington, Oregon), Gulf (Louisiana, Texas) and Atlantic coasts (Maryland, Virginia).

In October 2023, pipeline installation on the project was 100% complete.^[18]

This new terminal being built in the port of Kitimat will be connected to the Pacific Ocean via the existing Douglas Channel. This development will add new sensitive ship traffic when the LNG Canada natural gas storage and liquefaction terminal will be completed and operational, which is estimated to be in 2025. The LNG Canada terminal project will see large LNG carrier ships loading liquefied natural gas at the future Kitimat LNG terminal, and sailing along the Douglas Channel to carry it to export destinations, mainly in Asia.

Pacific Future pipeline and refinery

[edit]

The Pacific Future Energy Refinery was projected to refine more than 30,000 m3 per day of nearly solid bitumen of the Western Canadian Select variety for at least 60 years.^[19] Grupo Salinas were the owners, and "European technology" was touted as the solution to environmental ills.^[20] The construction of the plant was budgeted at $11 billion and included carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.^[21] Capacity would be increased in 200,000 bpd stages that would cost $6 billion. Simeco, a Milan engineering and construction firm would provide the design. Modules would be built in Asia and transported to Prince Rupert for assembly. The project headquarters was in Vancouver. When the project was announced in June 2014 the funds has yet to be assembled, and a preliminary venture round for design work was budgeted at $250 million.^[20] Stockwell Day was hired by the proponents, as well as Shawn Atleo and Ovide Mercredi.^[17] The Northern Gateway pipeline, originally proposed by Enbridge, would have supplied the resource.^[21][17]

Opponents of the project included SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, and Haida people First Nations, as well as the Kitselas, Metlakatla and Gitga'at tribes of Tsimshian people.^[17]

The CEO of Pacific Future, Samer Salameh, notified the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) in December 2024 of the project's failure,^[21][22] and on 11 February 2025 Minister Steven Guilbeault wrote that the sponsors confirmed that they had discontinued the project, and that "This letter provides [Pacific Future] with notification that I have terminated the environmental assessment for the project."^[21][19]

Geography

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Kitimat is located 63 km (39 mi) south of Terrace and Thornhill on Highway 37. Prince Rupert is 207 km (129 mi) northwest, and Prince George is 629 km (391 mi) to the east.

Climate

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Kitimat has a warm-summer humid continental (Köppen climate classification Dfb) with mild summers and cold, snowy winters (much warmer than inland) with significant snowfall averaging 128 inches (325 cm) each year. The rainiest season is fall, with the wettest month, October, having 320 mm of rainfall. There is also a significant drying trend (Mediterranean pattern) in summer, but it is too cold and rainy to classify as such. Cloud cover is significant, especially in winter, and less than 30% of possible sunshine occurs each year.

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