Distant from roads or rail lines, the copper mine in northwestern British Columbia was accessible only by ship. Established in the early 1900s, the mining town of Anyox was a thriving hub of production and home comforts until the collapse of the copper market during the Great Depression. The company had no choice. The Anyox camp was abandoned in 1935.
Demand for copper flourished in the mid-1800s, and industry responded with surveys and new mines. In 1889, explorations in the Boundary Range of the Coastal Mountains and the temperate rainforest revealed copper at a remote location off Portland Canal, near Observatory Inlet.
Prospectors staked claims at Hidden Creek, about 160 km northeast of Prince Rupert on discovery of a vast sulphide deposit. Called a Besshi type deposit, the find was “exemplified by high-grade (2.4% copper) economic deposits,” said “The Anyox-Maple Bay Project” report in 1999 by IBK Capital.
For the rest of this column: https://www.thewhig.com/opinion/canadian-ingenuity-anyox-the-ghost-of-a-mining-town-in-the-mountains