First Shipments from Pine Valley Coal
On September 23, I joined colleagues Dan Jarvis and Pat Bell at North Vancouver’s Neptune Terminals, to celebrate the first shipment of coal produced by Pine Valley Mining Corporation. Pat Bell pointed out that this is the first new coal mine in Western Canada in a couple of decades. The new mine is near Chetwynd in northeast British Columbia. |
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On hand (see photographs) were Pat Bell, as well as Graham MacKenzie who is CEO of Pine Valley, Junji Morinaga and Alfred Liow of Japan’s Murabeni Canada who played a key role in financing the new venture, Moon-Hwan Jang and J. Rok Han of Korean steelmaker (the largest in the world) Posco Ltd. which is the buyer of the coal product, and Glenn Taylor who is Neptune’s CEO.
Also in attendance was David Stowe, Chairman of the Vancouver Port Authority (pictured with Ralph). David oversees an operation handling between 60 and 70 million metric tonnes of bulk cargo, general cargo, and container cargo, trading with more than 90 economies.
Also present were the bankers, the lawyers, and a large contingent of Neptune workers who had, in fact, completed the job of loading Pine Valley’s first coal shipment about two days ahead of time. It augurs well for the style of the new organization that rather than wait for the ceremonies, the carrier simply cast off and was well on its way across the Pacific by the time officials stepped up to the Neptune microphone.
Covering the event for the North Shore News was skilled reporter Jane Seyd, and I enjoyed the opportunity to turn the tables on the press, by writing a story about them for a change (she is the woman in the photograph talking with me.)
Not to be carried away, one should acknowledge that Pine Valley is small in comparison with Elk Valley Coal in our province’s southeastern region. Elk Valley is the world’s second largest producer of metallurgical coal, capable of supplying 25 million tonnes per year to world markets through its marine terminal at Roberts Bank. By comparison, Pine Valley expects to initially produce in the 1 million tonne range, according to plans announced at Neptune’s docks.[top]
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