Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia

The District Municipality of Tumbler Ridge is a small town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Peace River Regional District. The municipality of 1,574 square kilometres (608 sq mi), with its population of 2,454 people, incorporates a townsite and a large area of mostly Crown land.[1] The housing and municipal infrastructure, along with regional infrastructure connecting the new town to other municipalities, were built simultaneously in 1981 by the provincial government to service the coal industry as part of the British Columbia Resources Investment Corporation's Northeast Coal Development.

In 1981, a consortium of Japanese steel mills agreed to purchase 100 million tonnes of coal over 15 years for US$7.5 billion from two mining companies, Denison Mines Inc. and the Teck Corporation who were to operate the Quintette mine and the Bullmoose mine, respectively. Declining global coal prices after 1981, and weakening Asian markets in the late 1990s, made the town's future uncertain and kept it from achieving its projected population of 10,000 people. The uncertainty dissuaded investment and kept the economy from diversifying. When price reductions were forced onto the mines, the Quintette mine was closed in 2000 production and the town lost about half its population. Since 2000 rising coal prices have led to the opening of new mines in and near the municipality by Northern Energy & Mining Inc. and Western Canadian Coal (now Western Coal Corp.).


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