Katherine Bickford

No Coal signs referring to the Compliance Coal proposal to develop the Raven Coal Mine – an underground coal mine project located five kilometres west of the Buckley Bay ferry terminal.

In the early 1940s Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Limited, applied for a license to prospect in the area, and conducted active exploratory drilling. The results were promising and in 1946 the company decided to open a mine approximately 5 miles inland by road from Buckley Bay.

“It is estimated that T’sable River, when in full swing, will be able to produce one million tons per year and sufficient coal has been blocked out to guarantee that production rate for at least 25 years.”

Two other sites had been considered, one at the site of am old mine 3 ¼ miles from Buckley Bay, the other at an outcropping at Cowie Creek, the watershed adjacent to the T’sable River. This is near the site presently being considered by Compliance Coal for the Raven Underground Coal Project.

The mine opened in 1949, and by the mid 1950s the T’sable River mine employed between 200 and 230 men and produced 150,000 – 200,000 tons of coal annually until closed the T’sable River Mine was closed in April of 1960. The newly formed Comox Mining Company Limited hired 100 of the miners and operated the mine for another six years before the coal market dried up. The T’sable River mine produced slightly less than 2 million tons over its lifetime.