BQE Water’s Britannia Mine O&M contract: long-term treatment lessons for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
BQE Water has secured its largest-ever contract to operate and maintain the Britannia Mine Water Treatment Plant, 50 km north of Vancouver on the Sea-to-Sky Highway, following a competitive procurement led by Infrastructure BC for the provincial government. The plant treats acid rock drainage from the historic Britannia copper mine, which once discharged some of the most metal-laden effluents on the British Columbia coast. Long-term O&M by a specialist water treatment contractor signals continued regulatory pressure on legacy mine water liabilities and stable demand for high-reliability treatment performance.
Technical Brief
- Long-term outsourcing model shifts day-to-day process control and asset management from government to specialist operator.
- O&M contract structure likely includes strict effluent quality guarantees aligned with provincial discharge permits and coastal receiving environment.
- Similar legacy mining sites in BC may adopt comparable long-term O&M models for water treatment liabilities.
Our Take
Among the 384 Mining stories in our database, relatively few focus on long-term water treatment operations, so BQE Water Inc’s contract at the Britannia Mine Water Treatment Plant positions it as one of the more visible specialist operators in acid rock drainage management in BC.
The plant’s location roughly 50 km north of Vancouver along the Sea-to-Sky Highway means performance and reliability have a public-facing dimension, with any operational issues at Britannia Mine likely to attract more scrutiny than comparable remote remediation sites.
Infrastructure BC’s role in this project underscores how legacy mine water liabilities in the province are increasingly being handled through structured public procurement, which can favour established operators like BQE Water Inc over smaller niche consultancies when multi‑year O&M contracts are tendered.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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