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| LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION: | Fonds |
| No.: | PR0211 |
| TITLE: | International Bitumen Company Limited fonds |
| CREATOR: | International Bitumen Company |
| DATE RANGE: | 1907-1957, predominant 1937-1957 |
| EXTENT: | 0.23 m of textual records |
| ADMINISTRATIVE |
| HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | The International Bitumen Company Limited, founded in August 1927 by Robert C. Fitzsimmons, was engaged in extracting oil from the Athabasca tar sands. The company operated an extraction plant in Bitumount, Alberta and had its head office in Edmonton. In 1930 the plant was the first to commercially produce bitumen from the tar sands and the company's product was used in roofing material, paints and paving. During the early 1940s, however, the company began having difficulties competing with larger oil companies. In 1942, a man by the name of L.R. Champion met with Fitzsimmons and offered to finance the International Bitumen Company Limited. An agreement was struck between the two men, and Champion took over the assets and liabilities of the International Bitumen Company Limited. A new company was then formed called the Oil Sands Limited. From 1944 to 1948 Oil Sands Limited collaborated with the Alberta government to build an experimental extraction plant. In 1953 Champion formed the Great Canadian Oil Sands Consortium with Sun Oil Limited of Philadelphia, USA and by 1967 the new plant (by this time renamed Suncor) went into operation. Mr. Champion sold most of his interests between 1966-1967, but his Oil Sands Limited was not liquidated until 1976, five years after his death.
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| CUSTODIAL HISTORY: | The records in this fonds were found in the McDougall Court Building in Edmonton, Alberta by the owner of the building, Mr. Macmillan. Macmillan deposited these records in the Human History Division of the Provincial Museum and Archives of Alberta, and they were subsequently transferred to the archives in 1966. Mr. Grant Nielsen deposited accession PR1971.199 in the Provincial Archives of Alberta. Mr. Nielsen's relationship with Oil Sands Limited is unknown. |
| SCOPE AND CONTENT: | Fonds consists of business records of the International Bitumen Company Limited. Fonds also includes an accident record book, samples of forms, a letter, radio messages, and information regarding the project between Oil Sands Limited and the Alberta Government. Fonds has been divided into the following series: 1937 Business correspondence files; 1942 Business correspondence files; Other business records; Oil Sands Limited records. |
| ARRANGEMENT NOTE: | The files of the International Bitumen Company Limited in accession PR1966.174 were received in alphabetical order and this arrangement has been maintained in the inventory. The two years, 1937 and 1942 have been treated separately. |
| RELATED RECORDS: | Other records regarding Oil Sands Limited can be found in the Lloyd R. Champion fonds in the University of Alberta Archives in Edmonton, Alberta. |
| GENERAL NOTE: | Most of the information in the Administrative history/Biographical sketch was obtained from a report by R.C. Fitzsimmons entitled The Truth About Alberta Tar Sands: Why were they kept out of production?This fonds was donated at the same time and in the same accession as the following unrelated fonds: Henry A. Klassen fonds (PR0209); Lagustus L. Pound fonds (PR0210); W.W. Sales Limited fonds (PR0213). |