North Coast of British Columbia
The British Columbia Coast, popularly referred to as the BC Coast or simply the Coast, is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. As the entire western continental coastline of Canada along the Pacific Ocean is in the pr ...
, Canada, at the head of Alice Arm, Observatory Inlet and at the mouth of the Kitsault River. The locality of Alice Arm and the Nisga'a community of Gits'oohl (formerly Gitzault Indian Reserve No. 24) are in the immediate vicinity. "Kitsault" is an adaptation of ''Gits'oohl'', which means "a ways in behind".
History
The later town of Kitsault was established in 1979 as the home community to a
molybdenum
Molybdenum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mo (from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'') and atomic number 42. The name derived from Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lead ores. Molybdenum minerals hav ...
mine, run by the Phelps Dodge corporation of the United States. The community was designed for 1,200 residents and included a shopping mall, restaurant, swimming pool and bowling alley. In 1982, however, prices for molybdenum crashed and the entire community was evacuated after just 18 months of residence.
In 2004, the ghost town was bought by Indian-Canadian businessman Krishnan Suthanthiran for $5.7 million; he has spent $2 million maintaining the town. He renamed the community from "Kitsault" to "Chandra Krishnan Kitsault", after his deceased mother. In the end, he would have spent over $20 million more to fully update the town. He has also since closed the town to the public.
In an effort to revitalize the ghost town, Kitsault has been proposed as a location for a
liquefied natural gas
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...
(LNG) terminal site for the export of natural gas from northwestern British Columbia. LNG pipeline routing to Kitsault has been proposed.