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Thursday, August 12, 1954.

THE TRIBUNE, WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C.

S Page 8

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Tuesday, August 3, 1954 will go
down as “A” Day in the industrial
annals of British Columbia.

With H.R.H. The Duke of Ediu-
burgh, federal government and com-
pany officials, and nation-wide press
and radio representatives witnessing
the history-making event, the first
aluminum ingot was poured at 2245
p.m, August 3rd at the multi-million
dollar aluminum smelter at Kitimat
— B.C.’s newest city which is being
literally carved out of the northern
wilds.

“A’ Day — marking the entry of
aluminum into this province's fast
expanding industrial era — climaxed
three years of labor for an army of
10,000 men and the investment to
date of $275 millions to conquer a
vast mountain wilderness for the
harnessing of hydroelectric power
and the establishment of a giant en-

terprise which eventually will sup-
ort a modern city of an anticipated
50,000. When the huge Alcan pro-
ject ultimately reaches its five-fold
expansion potential, at least $550,-
000,000 will have gone into the de-
velopment. In addition, a $60,000.-
pulp and paper mill, using. Alcan’s
vast newly-harnessed power resourc-
es from nearby Kemano, 1s planned
for the area.
STORY OF COURAGE & VISION
The story of Kitimat which un-
folded on August 3rd before the eyes
of Royalty and commoners alike 1s a
story of the courage and vision of
private enterprise, the skills of mod-
ern engineering science and the
labors of thousands of men whose
brain and brawn triumphed over
formidable obstacles. It is also a
story of a future yef unborn — a
future of ordinary men, women and

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Alcan Marks “A” Day In Industrial History

FIRST INGOT POURED FROM HUGE KITIMAT
SMELTER AS DUKE WITNESSES EVENT

EDITOR’S NOTE: Tuesday, August 3, marked the official
commencement of operations at the huge Alcan aluminum
smelter at Kitimat. Attending the ceremonies as representa-
tives of the weekly press in B.C. were Lang Sands, publisher
of the Fraser Valley Record, Mission City; Edgar Dunning,
publisher Ladner Optimist, and Les Way, Vancouver repre-
sentative of B.C.’s weekly newspapers. This is their on-the-
spot story of this historical:event in the industrial life of
Eritish Columbia, written especially for The Tribune.

children living out their hopes and
ambitions in this newest of thriving
industrial cities which only a few
short years ago was a sleepy, almost
almost unknown muskeg Indian vil-
lage in a virgin wilderness.

The location of Alan’s smelter is
a broad river valley 400 miles north
of Vancouver and 100 Miles from
Alaska — some three hours by air
from Vancouver.

As we flew down over the bustling
townsite, as guests of the Aluminum
Company of Canada, we were re-
minded of the old saying about bring-
ing coals to Newcastle. Seen from
the air on a bright sunny day, Kiti-
mat gives a first impression of being
made entirely of aluminum. The réot
decks and roof cladding of the build-
ings are aluminum sheet. Walls of
the smelter proper and other build-
ings also are made of aluminum

Inside the buildings, too, extensive
use has been made of light metal
alloys throughout. As a final touch
to Aluminum City, an all-aluminum
industrial fence incloses the entire
property. Altogether 15

first stage of the Kemano-Kitimat
project.

Spread out over an area of unset-
tled territory 160 miles in width and
60 miles in depth, the vast complex
development will eventually have a
hydroelectric capacity of 2,240,600
h.p., the largest ever undertaken by
private enterprise. This block of
power will supply the largest al-
uminum smelter in the world having
an annual production capacity of
550,000 tons. The initial stage of the
project now in oeration uses hydro-
electric capacity of 420,000 hp. and
will produce 91,500 tons of alumin-
um annually. Hyrdo-electric works,
transmission lines and smelter site
are capable of rapid expansion with
the installation of additional gen-
erators and smelter potlines.
POPULATION 4000

When ultimately completed for
capacity production, the entire smel-
ter buildings will occupy an area
two miles long and close to three
quarters of a mile wide. Present
population of Kitimat is around
4000, including, only 250 women.
Only a handful of the latter are single
girls.

In the Kemano powerhouse, a vast
cavern, one quarter miles inside the
mountain, the three 140,000 h.p.
turbines started to turn over on July
15, 195#, driven by the waters fall-
ing 2,600 feet through penstocks
from the tunnel above. For the past
three weeks power has surged
through the 50-mile aluminum trans-
mission line which crosses a 5,000
foot mountain pass between Kemano
and Kitimat to ‘‘bake” the “pots” in
the aluminum smelter. The newly
built seaport at Kitimat, adjacent to
the smelter, has be@n steadily re-
ceiving the various materials such as
petroleum coke, pitch, eryolite and
alumina, consumed in the smelter.
The company’s own ships are on a
regular schedule bringing alumina
— a fine white powder material —
through the Panama Canal from
Jamaica where another Aluminum
Limited subsidiary was the first to
acquire bauxite properties and to
extract the refined alumina from
the bauxite ore. About $30 millions
has thus far been invested in Ja-

million +
pounds of aluminum went into this |

maica, mainly to support the Kitimat
smelter.

Bauxite, the chief ore of alumin-
um, is obtained from company mines
in Jamaica. A modern ore-treating
plant reduces the weight of the baux-
ite by two-thirds, converting it to
the white powder alumina. Bulk
shipments of alumina are now being
brought through the Panama Canal
up the west coast of North America
to Kitimat, the site of the new
aluminum smelter. Here it is stock-
piled and fed to the smelters as
needed.

First shipments of primary alum-
inum ingot will leave Kitimat short-
ly. The company’s present production
tered at Arvida, in Quebec, amounts
to about 550,000 toms per year, or
roughly one quarter of the world’s
supply. About 85% of this produc-
tion is shipped to world markets, the
largest being the United States and
Britain, who have found it advan-
taeous to rely on the economical

hydro resources.

Over a million cubic yards of solid
ranite were dynamited and removed
in tunneling to bring water to the
Kemano powerhouse. 4 tunnel 10
miles long brings water from the vast
reservoir created by the Kenney Dain
on the east side of the Coast \
tain range, to the turbines inside the
base of Mount DuBose half a mile
below on the western side of the
range. This is one of two identical
tunnels, the twin to be constructed
in the event that more than 1,000,000
horsepower is required for the Kiti-
mat smelter of the Alean-B.C. pro-
ject.

DUKE ARRIVES

The Duke's visit to Kitimat and
Kemano, for the official opening,
lacked any semblance of pomp and
ceremony. Dressed in a hand-tailored
dark grey business suit, His High-
ness might have been taken for a
company official on the inspection
tour. There was no swooning or out-
bursts of cheers among the 100-odd
persons gathered at the temporary
Kitimat wharf as the Duke deplaned
from the RCAF Mallard Amphibian
Craft which brought him trom
Kemano. ‘

As’he passed through a guard of
honor composed of Kitimat’s recent-
ly-formed Boy Scout and Girl Guide
units, Philip paused and chatted with
the pi ke Cubs and Brownies. It
was obviously a thrill-of-a-lifetime
for the youngsters..From the dock he
was driven to the smelter in an or-
dinary bus with his party, including
a plain-clothes Scotland Yard detec-
tive. Hon. C. D. Howe, Trade and
Commerce minister, Alean officials
and the accredited press party, fol-
lowed in similar buses.

As Philip toured the huge smelter
grimy-faced workers congregated at
every turn to get a view of the Royal
visitor. At one point he stopped and
chatted in French with a French-
Canadian foreman in the plant. At
other points he acknowledged with a
smile or a wave of the hand greetings
from workers as they shouted, “Hi,
Philip.” One punster was heard to
remark to ,a fellow-worker, “Say,
Philip’s a real prince of a guy, isn’t
he.” There was no doubt that the mea
in the plant sized him up as a man’s
man and “a good guy.”

Completely relaxed but genuinely
interested in the amazingly technical
aluminum operation, he surprised on-
lookers with the seriousness of his

(Continued on Page 7)

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