Around a decade after World War II (1951 – 1959), Kitimat was the place to be in North America, both for the new town plan and for the innovative engineering of the time. The Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) completed the Kitimat-Kemano Project in just five years, including a dam, tunnel, powerhouse, Kemano, transmission line, aluminum smelter, and Kitimat. In the worldwide, post-war, industrial boom, the Kitimat-Kemano Project was the largest construction project for the time. Thousands came and participated in the feverish construction activity.

The BC and Canadian governments and Alcan promoted Kitimat around the world. With aluminum as the ‘new’ metal, they were building the future. The Kitimat-Kemano Project was the model of modern Canadian ingenuity – a feat that Canadians were able to achieve in the wild Canadian landscape.

The Kitimat-Kemano Project was constructed from scratch, records were set, innovation was at every turn, and the result was the largest smelter in the world and the premier community to go with it. Kitimat would be BC’s first planned community – a suburban utopia so desirable to the worker that a stable workforce would be maintained.

The smelter was purchased in 2007 by British-Australian multinational corporation Rio Tinto. Between 2009 and 2015, Rio Tinto Alcan (Canadian operation based in Montreal) began the process of modernizing the smelter. It operates today with the new aluminum-producing potlines. The old lines are in the process of being dismantled.