Rio Tinto BC Works Kitimat Terminal A/B

Kitimat, BC · Private · Rio Tinto · Douglas Channel (Kitimat Arm)

Private deep-sea industrial port serving Rio Tinto's BC Works aluminium smelter at Kitimat, operating since 1954 and powered by the company's Kemano hydroelectric facility. The ice-free port comprises two private terminals (A and B) that import alumina, anodes and other smelter supplies and export low-carbon aluminium (419 Kt produced in 2024, shipped to markets including Japan, South Korea and the USA). The extended Terminal A wharf, built by LNG Canada on Rio Tinto's existing facility, berthed its first ship on 6 December 2021 and accommodates vessels of 200-250 metres via a 20,000 m3 concrete deck on 400+ steel piles plus a deep-sea hydraulic barge ramp. The terminals sit on the Douglas Channel (Kitimat Arm), a tidal Pacific fjord.