Teck Cominco smelter

Teck Cominco smelter
Teck Cominco smelter

The Teck Cominco smelter, also known as the Teck Cominco Lead-Zinc Smelter, Cominco Smelter, and Trail smelter located in Trail, British Columbia, Canada, is the largest integrated lead-zinc smelter of its kind in the world.[1][2] It is situated approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of the border between British Columbia, Canada and Washington, in the United States, on the Columbia River. It is owned and operated by Vancouver, British Columbia-based Teck Cominco Metals Ltd—renamed Teck Resources.[2]

Since 1896, there has been a copper and gold smelting operation in the area.[1] The original company, Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, was founded in 1906 through a merger of several entities then under the control of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).[3] In July 2001, Cominco and Tech Resources merged and in 2008, Teck Cominco renamed itself as Teck.[4] By 2018, the Teck Cominco smelter complex had been in operation for over a century. It provided 1,400 jobs in 2018, making it the largest employer in the small city of Trail, with a population of 7800.[5] In 2017, the smelter produced more than 230,000 tons of zinc, which is used in rustproofing both iron and steel.[5] Teck reported that they had invested CA$525 million in the late 2010s to "improve efficiency and performance at its Trail Operations" and that they intend to invest an added CA$150 million.[5] The Trail Operations contributed CA$169 million to Teck Resources CA$3.3-billion gross profit in 2017.[5]

  1. ^ a b Teck Cominco Lead-Zinc Smelter. Department of the Environment, Province of British Columbia (Report). Remediation Project Profiles. January 2009.
  2. ^ a b "Colvilles sue Teck Cominco over pollution". Spokane. Associated Press. July 22, 2004. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  3. ^ "Tales of Teck and Cominco". Canadian Mining Journal. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  4. ^ "Teck scraps Cominco brand". Toronto Star. October 1, 2008. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference financialpost_Friedman_20180122 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).