[BCMA] Britannia Mine Museum Wins Syncrude Award for Excellence in Sustainable Development

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

For immediate release
May 10, 2012
 
Britannia Mine Museum Wins Syncrude Award for Excellence in Sustainable
Development
Museum¹s achievements with economic, social and environmental benefits
recognized 
 
 
Britannia Beach, BC ­ The Britannia Mine Museum has added another award to
its growing list of accolades winning the 2012 Syncrude Award for Excellence
in Sustainable Development from the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy
and Petroleum (CIM). The Museum was recognized for its sustainable efforts
in its recent 2010 revitalization project. This project built on the
Museum¹s role as an engaged stakeholder and leader with the Province¹s
successful remediation program in Britannia Beach.
 
The Britannia Mine Museum was reinvented in 2010 by a $14.7 million
redevelopment project that turned a mining legacy site into a vibrant
internationally recognized tourist destination. The redevelopment project
focused on preserving the museum¹s heritage buildings and mining
collections, while creating an enhanced visitor experience with the new
Beaty-Lundin Visitor Centre and the Britannia A-Z Exhibit hall.
 
The Museum established an extensive storm water capture system, thereby
reducing the amount of surface water contaminated by drainage through acidic
soil. They have also preserved their existing heritage buildings by finding
new adaptive public purposes, designing a focused environmental education
program on Acid Rock Drainage and establishing itself as the region¹s
largest tourist attraction with upwards of 70,000 visitors annually.
 
The CIM Syncrude Award for Excellence in Sustainable Development recognizes
those in the Canadian minerals industry whose extraordinary systems,
programs or processes have far-reaching and positive sustainability effects
in all industries across the country.
 
³This is a significant award for us because it means that our efforts are
being recognized; the mining, metallurgy and petroleum members of CIM are
obviously proud that Britannia Mine Museum is able to engage the public on
the topic of mining and environmental remediation. The award recognizes our
focus on ensuring we strive to operate a museum using principles of
sustainability in economic, social and environmental areas,² says Kirstin
Clausen, executive director of the Britannia Mine Museum. ³We have an
important role in being an environmental educator, raising public awareness
of sustainability issues associated with mining and we¹re glad to be able to
share our success stories with everyone.²
 
The Museum¹s redevelopment and design approach was to keep as much of the
heritage mining site and rehabilitate and reuse as many of the existing
buildings and materials as possible. The result is an interesting and
relevant mixture of industrial buildings, structures, and site features with
a connection to the storied Britannia community.  Architects and exhibits
designers embraced the eclectic nature of existing materials while utilizing
modern design structures to give the Museum¹s facilities a sense of
modernistic architecture while retaining its historic culture.
 
Connections with the environment and nature can be seen in the creative use
of water, wood, stone and copper elements throughout the site. The Visitor
Centre is clad in a combination of dark-stained local Douglas Fir siding and
pre-patinated blue-green copper panels made of recycled content pay homage
to the Britannia Mine¹s copper mining days, when it was once the British
Empire¹s largest copper mine.
 
In addition, the museum¹s onsite storm water management system diverts
run-off rainwater to intermediate detention areas in the form of feature
ponds and water gardens around the museum. Water is also sent to the EPCOR
Britannia Mine Water Treatment Plant to be naturally treated and filtered,
resulting in clean water flowing back down into Howe Sound.
 
The Britannia Mine Museum¹s successes and efforts to raise awareness of
environmental sustainability earned them several awards in the last year.
These included the coveted Robert R. Hedley Award for Social and
Environmental Responsibility from the Association for Mineral Exploration
British Columbia (AME BC), the Award of Merit from the British Columbia
Museum Association (BCMA) and the Award for Outstanding Achievement from the
Canadian Museum Association (CMA).
 
The Britannia Mine Museum is open seven days a week at 9:00 a.m. with
regular guided tours of the underground mine throughout the day (last tour
at 4pm). Visit www.britanniaminemuseum.ca
<http://www.britanniaminemuseum.ca>  for more information.
 
 
About the Britannia Mine Museum:
 
The Britannia Mine Museum is a mining legacy site and a vibrant,
internationally recognized education and tourist destination located between
Vancouver and Whistler on the Sea-to-Sky highway. It is a National Historic
Site and is a non-profit organization with the intent to increase awareness
of the impact of mining and minerals to society, the history of the storied
Britannia Beach community and the ideas and practices of environmental
renewal and sustainability. It promotes mining awareness through
entertaining, experiential education programs, important historic collection
preservation and insightful public engagement that allows guests to leave
with a better understanding of mining in BC; past, present and future.
www.britanniaminemuseum.ca
<file://localhost/applewebdata/::F4419268-C37E-41CC-A987-3F7C14094030:www.br
itanniaminemuseum.ca> .
 
 
-30-
 
Media contact:  
 


 
Yvonne Chiang, Publicist
Britannia Mine Museum
604-880-5090
E: yvonne at blueskycommunications.ca
W: www.britanniaminemuseum.ca
 
T: www.twitter.com/BritanniaMine
F: www.facebook.com/BritanniaMineMuseum
<http://www.facebook.com/BritanniaMineMuseum>
 


 


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