"Operating in heights two or three hundred feet above ground is something you have to learn as you go."

Len was eager to be a part of our project. He quickly gathered his memorabilia and photos to bring to our office for us to use in this web site.The Poole's had planned to be in Port Hardy for only a short time, however, the mine had years of work ahead, and they grew to like the community, made plenty of friends and stayed much longer than intended.

Len’s Story

“When I started in 1975 it was called Utah, and they had been running since 1970. We got a brand new townhouse; we could have gotten a new house cheaper than the townhouse, but we only planned to stay for five years.

We ended up staying there for twenty years,and raising our kids there. If we had stayed for five years and wanted to leave, the company would have bought the house back for whatever we had put into it.

“Apparently Island Copper’s open pit mine was one of the deepest mines in the world. We shipped directly to Japan, and the ships would come in empty and go fully loaded. The ships would come probably once every three months, so we had a great big bin that the ore was stored in. Almost everything came up to the mine on barges, but some of it was trucked in.