Ridley Island Coal Terminals was built in 1984 to provide an export point for vast reserves of metallurgical and thermal coal in northeastern British Columbia and Alberta and is a Federal Crown Corporation. The port is the most northern deep water port in North America and has the ability to handle capesize vessels up to 250,000 DWT. The terminal has the capability of unloading unit trains at a rate of 6,000 tonnes per hour and to load ships at a rate of 9,000 tonnes per hour. In October 2011 Coalspur reached an agreement with Ridley on terms for the shipment of export thermal coal from the Vista Coal Project. The agreement entitles Coalspur to up to 6.0Mtpa of port allocation with an option for an additional 2.5Mtpa and has been structured to reflect the expected production profile of Vista. The agreement has a 14-year term that commences in January 2015 and includes an option to extend the term for an additional seven years.
The terminal has an annual shipping capacity of 12 million tonnes, which can be expanded to 24 million tonnes and is available to all users and operates 24 hours a day.