Britannia Mine Museum Unveils New Immersive Mill Show Concept

For immediate release

Britannia Mine Museum Unveils New Immersive Mill Show Experience

Photo: Concept designs of the Britannia Mine Museum’s new Mill experience show

Britannia Beach, B.C. (September 20, 2018) –The Britannia Mine Museum is unveiling the concept designs for the upcoming Mill show experience, a new feature attraction and immersive multi-sensory show that brings the 20-storey Mill building and National Historic Site back to life.

Launching Spring 2019, the new Mill show experience tells the captivating story of the wide-ranging importance of the historic Mill building when it was fully operational from the 1920’s until its closing in 1974.

“We are excited to unveil the designs of our new Mill show and share the significant role it played in B.C.’s and Canada’s history and economic success,” says Kirstin Clausen, executive director of the Britannia Mine Museum.

“The show will transport visitors back in time for an authentic, thrilling, visceral and acoustic experience, taking advantage of the sheer mass and awe of the 20-storey historical Mill building. This modern day interpretation of the Mill’s history wouldn’t be possible without the gracious support of our Board, the Provincial and Federal governments as well as the supportive mining industry. We are thrilled to be working with the internationally experienced team VISTA Collaborative Arts to create and produce our Show.”

A National Historic Site and one of the last remaining gravity-fed concentrator mills in North America, the 20-storey Mill building is an awe-inspiring, rock-hugging building that has been the symbol of Britannia throughout the years. The Mill literally “rocked and rolled” when it was in production as it received raw ore from 200 km of underground tunnels and produced copper and zinc concentrates to be shipped elsewhere for processing into metals. The Mill was both literally and metaphorically a beacon to the economic wellbeing of the communities in the Howe Sound region.

In fact, the Britannia Mine was the largest copper producer in the British Empire in the late 1920s. Rehabilitated in 2007, each of the Mill’s 14,416 panes of glass was hand-puttied into the frames to maintain its heritage and the building can be seen from miles away from the waters of Howe Sound. 

The new Mill experience show also features the incredible work of Dynamic Attractions, a Port Coquitlam based company specializing in building some of the world’s most iconic and award–winning amusement theme park attractions and structures. Dynamic Attractions will be engineering and fabricating a movable skip for the Mill show which will demonstrate how mining equipment was hauled up and down the 20-storey Mill building.

“The Britannia Mine Museum is such a unique tourist attraction and their Mill show will bring a new, exciting way for people to experience it,” says Hao Wang, president of Dynamic Attractions. “This project has captured our imagination and we believe it will be thrilling for guests.”

Dynamic Attractions has created ride systems and attractions-related products in the US, Asia, the Middle East and Europe, but never in Canada. Dynamic is comprised of approximately 350 innovative engineers, highly–precise fabricators and other specialists.

“We are looking forward to working on a local project, close to home, with the Museum’s brilliant team,” adds Wang. “Together we will bring this historic 1920s Mill structure back to life.“

The Britannia Mine Museum provides fun, unique and memorable experiences that engage visitors of all ages including educational exhibits and crowd favourites like the underground mine train, gold panning, machine shop, and the Beaty-Lundin Visitor Centre where they can learn about Britannia’s history.

The new Mill show experience and the additional rehabilitation of the Museum’s infrastructure were made possible by a $1.4 million funding contribution by the Government of Canada under its New Building Canada Fund, alongside another $2.8 million the Museum has fundraised from a supportive BC mining industry and the Provincial Government of B.C. Vista Collaborative Arts is the production company behind the Mill experience show.

About Dynamic Attractions:
50 of the world’s most popular theme park rides have been designed and built by Dynamic Attractions. In addition to its innovative product line of rides and attraction related services, Dynamic also provides parts and service support for rides of all kinds. Dynamic was founded in Port Coquitlam, BC and has operations in Orlando, Dallas, Toronto and Shanghai. Its sister company, Dynamic Structures, designs and builds complex structures and mechanical systems and has the renowned distinction of having built many of the world’s largest telescope enclosures. Both companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Empire Industries Ltd. www.dynamicattractions.com

About VISTA Collaborative Arts:
Vista Collaborative Arts was founded in 1998 to create immersive experiences for museums, science centres and themed attractions: from multi-screen theaters with physical special effects to IMAX® type large format films.  They are a Vancouver based company that works internationally.  Every project is a unique mix of challenges and opportunities and VISTA uses their established associations with highly motivated independent talent in diverse fields such as exhibit design, show control, lighting design, physical special effects, film production and computer animation to produce exciting shows.  Their work can be seen worldwide in eleven languages. www.vista-arts.com

About Britannia Mine Museum:
The Britannia Mine Museum is a mining legacy site and a vibrant, internationally recognized education and tourist destination located between Vancouver and Whistler on the Sea-to-Sky highway. It is a National Historic Site and a non-profit organization encouraging mining awareness through entertaining, experiential education programs and exhibits, important historic collection preservation and insightful public engagement that allows guests to leave with a better understanding of mining in BC; past, present and future. The Britannia Mine Museum is open seven days a week with guided tours throughout the day. www.britanniaminemuseum.ca

Facebook: @BritanniaMineMuseum Instagram: @BritanniaMineMuseum

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Media contact: Yvonne Chiang, 604-880-5090, ychiang@bcmm.ca