Britannia Beach derives its name from the Britannia Range of mountains to its east. They were named around 1859 by Captain Richards of the survey ship HMS Plumper after another Royal Navy vessel, HMS Britannia which never was in BC waters, but which took part in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

In 1888 Dr. A. A. Forbes discovered a major deposit of copper ore on Britannia Mountain that eventually was developed as a producing mine in the early 1900s. The Britannia Mining and Smelting Company, a branch of the Howe Sound Company, owned the site. The first ore was shipped to Crofton on Vancouver Island for smelting in 1904 and the mine reached full productioin the following year. A townsite grew up around the mine and related buildings.

By the late 1920s and early 1930s Britannia Mines became the largest producer of copper in the British Commonwealth. In 1963 the property was bought by Anaconda Mining Company which continued to operate the mine until 1974 when it closed. In 1975 the BC Museum of Mining opened, using the mine, mill and other buildings to tell the story of Britannia Beach and mining in general. In 1988 the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated Britannia as a National Historic Site.

Remediation of soil contamination has been a major issue at Britannia Beach and floods have caused havoc with the mine and the community. However, these problems are being overcome and the concentrator building that dominates the townsite has received a $5 million stabilization.

The Stop of Interest sign at Britannia Mines is a new plaque erected in 2008 by the Ministry of Transportation to commemorate BC150. The original sign which it replaces, erected after the 1958 Centennial, is pictured in the slideshow.