What began as a dream in the mid 1960s to build a superport away from the rush and crush of the main harbour, became reality in 1970 with the opening of Canada’s largest coal export terminal, built on reclaimed land at Roberts Bank, Delta BC.

Located 32 kilometres from the Inner Harbour of Port Metro Vancouver, the Outer Harbour facility – built by the then National Harbours Board and leased and equipped by Westshore Terminals – has thrived ever since. Connected to suburban Delta by a five kilometre causeway, the single pod terminal had one deep-sea berth with twin quadrant shiploaders, a coal car dumper, and stockpile equipment including two mobile reclaimers.

The major customer was Kaiser Coal (later Kaiser Resources Ltd., BC Coal, and Westar Mining) and its coal mines in Sparwood and the Elk Valley in southeastern British Columbia. The rail haul to port was a daunting 1,100 kilometres over some of the most rugged terrain on earth and sometimes in difficult weather conditions.

In the first year, 1.5 million tonnes of coal was shipped, largely to Japan, and the terminal employed 45 workers fulltime on a three shift, 24-hours a day, seven days a week basis. Capacity was set at 5.5 million tonnes per year.