Resources to Enhance your Visit

Continue your exploration of the topics covered in your field trip program with one or more of the following exercises. Topics include: Mysteries of the Mine, MiningXL: the Bigger Picture, and Britannia's Environmental Legacy.

The Mysteries of the Mine

Connecting with the Past
Our story will introduce you to some of the many different types of jobs people had at Britannia. Use this exercise to have your students imagine working at Britannia and writing a letter home to their parents describing life and work in this isolated resource town.
View the student worksheet by clicking here.

What's in a Photo?
Engage your students in discovering how historic photos help us interpret the past.

Further Explore our Story
This exercise asks your students to read a short story that tells some of the highs and lows Britannia faced and find the capitalized words in the puzzle.

In Their Own Words
Introduce what it was like to live and work at Britannia to your class with one or more of the following topics:

Minorities at Britannia: Examine the racial segregation experienced at Britannia and how the attitudes of the time compare to today.
Social Structure: Use this exercise to examine how the stories of people from the past can fail to capture the entire story.
Women at Britannia: Over the course of Britannia’s life, the accepted roles of women in society changed. Compare and contrast the lives of women at Britannia to the lives of women in Canada today.
Women Underground: Today, women are accepted in every role in mining. This was not always the case. Examine this change through Britannia’s first request to allow a woman to work underground.

Mining XL: The Bigger Picture

Stakeholders: The Mining Game
Played as a part of the XL program, Stakeholders is the game which asks your students to make decisions about their own mining companies based on real-world scenarios. The game is available in several versions for download so you can reference the material, play the game in your classroom, or provide it to your students to take home to play with friends and family. Note: Game play facilitated by our Interpreters differs slightly from the downloadable versions.

Mining: Tomorrow and Beyond – Discussing the Bigger Picture
During your visit, your class discovered how mining changed in North America over the 1900s as well as how mining companies today face a wide range of difficult decisions on how, where, and when they will mine. Continue the discussion back in the classroom with “Mining: Tomorrow and Beyond”.

Mining in the Developing World
The developing world is the new frontier for mining. Mineral exploration is venturing farther and deeper than ever before. As it does, the same issues we faced with industrialized mining are now facing the developing world. What are the laws; how are they enforced; how, when, and where should we mine? With large scale mining, these issues can be tackled by civil society, government, and the industry. Not so easily addressed is the impact of illegal mining on the environment and human health.

Explore with your students some of the issues and outcomes of our endless quest for mined resources.While mining is essential to our way of life, it is not without issues. This activity presents several short videos that look both at some of the impacts and some of the benefits of mining in these countries.

In Their Own Words - Women in Mining
Mining – it is a man’s domain, or so it once was. Today however, women are an important part of the mineral exploration and extraction industry. Use this exercise to examine how attitudes have changed with regards to women in mining.

In Their Own Words - Safety at Britannia - Silicosis
Over the life of the Britannia Mine, the understanding and prevention of silicosis advanced tremendously. Use this exercise to examine this serious issue and how things improved from the perspective of the government and workers.

In Their Own Words - The Safety Record
Britannia is known for having an excellent safety record. This is in large part because of the Company’s efforts to improve safety over the years. This exercise asks your students to look at safety from the perspectives of the Company, government, and workers and propose how they would make mining safer.

Environmental Journeys – Britannia 1918 to New Prosperity 2014
Mining changed dramatically over the course of the 20th century. So did our understanding of its impact on the environment. Extend your look at how environmental standards changed with this exercise which asks students to examine changes in attitudes towards the environment.

‘This is my story – Marie Bourgoin’ -- Video
This two minute video produced by Rio Tinto gives a glimpse into the mine of the future where everything is remotely operated. It also provides one look at women in mining today.

Environmental Journeys – Government Legislation
BC introduced its Pollution Control Act in 1967. When the Act went into effect, the Mine was now for the first time required to meet environmental standards. Since then, the standards have vastly improved. Have your class examine how they have changed with this exercise.

Environmental Journeys – The Missing Years
In 1970, new legislation required the Britannia Mine to receive a permit to discharge its mine waste and water into Howe Sound. While the Mine closed in 1974, Anaconda (then owners of the Mine) worked with government to ensure the Mine’s effluent met the environmental standards of the day until they turned over the mine’s lands to a new company in 1979. What followed were two decades of environmental issues. In this paper, with recommended source documents for reference and an extended list of source documents, we tell the story of the years between closure and successful remediation of the mine site.

This story makes a good case study in how industry, government, and people contribute to the success or failure of a Mine’s environmental legacy.

Recommended Source Documents
This RAR file contains the source documents necessary to support the key issues in ‘The Missing Years’.

Full Set of Source Documents from the Museum’s Archives
This Zip file contains all the source documents used to recreate the ‘The Missing Years’ story.

Britannia's Environmental Legacy

Environmental Journeys – The Missing Years
Acid Mine Drainage – the single largest environmental liability the mining industry faces today. During your visit, your class learned how Britannia is now a model for mine site remediation. How is it then that the Britannia Mine went from meeting the government’s standards to becoming a major AMD pollution source?

The problem began when new owners took over the closed mine site in 1979. What followed was two decades of environmental issues. In this paper, with recommended source documents for reference and an extended list of additional source documents, we tell the story of the years between closure and successful remediation of the mine site.