Horne Smelter | |
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Location | Rouyn-Noranda, Québec, Canada |
Coordinates | 48°15′12″N79°00′49″W / 48.25328°N 79.01358°W |
Industry | Metallurgy |
Products | Copper, Precious metals, Sulfuric acid |
Employees | 650 |
Address | 101 Av. Portelance, Rouyn-Noranda, QC J9X 5B6 |
Owner(s) | Noranda (1927-2005), Falconbridge (2005-2006) Xstrata (2006-2013), Glencore (since 2013) |
Website | https://www.glencore.ca/en/horne/ |
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The Horne Smelter (French: Fonderie Horne) is an industrial complex in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. It is Canada's only copper smelter, [1] and the largest processor of metals from electronic scrap in North America. [2] [3]
The smelter is named after prospector Edmund Horne. The first copper pour took place on December 17, 1927. [4]
The smelter produces copper anodes of 99.1% purity. Its feedstock consists of both copper concentrate sourced from mines and shredded electronic waste. [5] Copper from electronic scrap comprises 15% of its production. [6]
In addition to copper and other metals, the facility also produces sulfuric acid. Commissioned in 1989, production from the sulfuric acid plant amounts to 640,000 metric tons per year, recovering some 96% of the sulfur generated by the smelting process. [5]
The smelter employs around 650 people. Its economic benefit has been placed at $500 million per year. [6]
A June 2022 study published by Quebec's public health body, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec , showed that the smelter had exposed the town of Rouyn-Noranda to harmful levels of arsenic and cadmium for decades, resulting in elevated levels of lung cancer. [1] [7]
Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zinc. Smelting uses heat and a chemical reducing agent to decompose the ore, driving off other elements as gases or slag and leaving the metal behind. The reducing agent is commonly a fossil-fuel source of carbon, such as carbon monoxide from incomplete combustion of coke—or, in earlier times, of charcoal. The oxygen in the ore binds to carbon at high temperatures, as the chemical potential energy of the bonds in carbon dioxide is lower than that of the bonds in the ore.
Rouyn-Noranda is a city on Osisko Lake in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada.
Abitibi—Témiscamingue is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2004. The area was also represented by the electoral district of Témiscamingue from 1968 until 2004.
Abitibi-Témiscamingue is an administrative region located in western Québec, Canada, along the border with Ontario. It became part of the province in 1898. It has a land area of 57,736.50 square kilometres (22,292.19 sq mi) and its population was 147,082 people as of the 2021 census. The region is divided into five regional county municipalities and 79 municipalities. Its economy continues to be dominated by resource extraction industries. These include logging and mining all along the rich geologic Cadillac Fault between Val-d'Or and Rouyn-Noranda, as well as agriculture.
Amos is a town in northwestern Quebec, Canada, on the Harricana River. It is the seat of Abitibi Regional County Municipality.
Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper ores consists of a series of physical, chemical, and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, local environmental regulations, and other factors.
Falconbridge Nickel Mines Limited was a Canadian mining company with operations in 18 countries, involved in the exploration, mining, processing, and marketing of metal and mineral products, including nickel, copper, cobalt, and platinum. In 1982 the company was renamed Falconbridge Limited. It was listed on the TSX and NYSE (FAL), and had revenue of US$6.9 billion in 2005. In August 2006, it was absorbed by Swiss-based mining company Xstrata, which had formerly been a major shareholder. On 28 October 2007, Falconbridge Limited changed its name to the Xstrata Canada Corporation.
Noranda Inc. was a mining and metallurgy company originally from Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada. It was listed on the TSX under the symbol NRD.LV. After eventually acquiring a large interest in rival mining company Falconbridge, it merged with that company in 2005. The combined company continued under the name Falconbridge Limited, ending the Noranda name. Only one year later in 2006 Falconbridge was acquired by the Swiss-based mining company Xstrata. On 2 May 2013 ownership of Xstrata was fully acquired by mining behemoth Glencore.
Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recovered metals, and non-metallic materials are also recovered for recycling. Once collected, the materials are sorted into types – typically metal scrap will be crushed, shredded, and sorted using mechanical processes.
La Oroya is a city on the River Mantaro and capital of the Yauli Province, located in the Department of Junin in central Peru. It is situated on the eastern watershed of the Andes at an altitude of 3,745 m, some 176 km east-north-east of the national capital, Lima. La Oroya is the location of a smelting operation that earned the town a place on the Blacksmith Institute's 2007 report on "The World's Worst Polluted Places". It is also the eastern endpoint of the Central Highway of Peru.
Edmund Henry (E.H) Horne was a Canadian businessman and prospector. He was most famous for being the founder of Noranda, a mining and metallurgy company originally from Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada.
Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue is a provincial electoral district in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada, which elects members to the National Assembly of Quebec. It notably includes large portions of the city of Rouyn-Noranda as well as the cities or municipalities of Ville-Marie, Témiscaming, Lorrainville, Saint-Bruno-de-Guigues, Notre-Dame-du-Nord and Laverlochère-Angliers. No incumbent since Rémy Trudel has won re-election in the riding.
Zinc smelting is the process of converting zinc concentrates into pure zinc. Zinc smelting has historically been more difficult than the smelting of other metals, e.g. iron, because in contrast, zinc has a low boiling point. At temperatures typically used for smelting metals, zinc is a gas that will escape from a furnace with the flue gas and be lost, unless specific measures are taken to prevent it.
Almost all media in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec serves all cities in the region, with very little differentiation between the three primary cities of Rouyn-Noranda, Val-d'Or, and Amos.
Daniel Bernard is a Canadian politician, who has served three non-consecutive terms as Member of the National Assembly for the electoral district of Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue. First elected as a member of the Quebec Liberal Party in the 2003 Quebec general election, he served until he was defeated by Johanne Morasse of the Parti Québécois in the 2007 Quebec general election; he was then re-elected in the same district, defeating Morasse, in the 2008 Quebec general election, serving a single term and not running for re-election in the 2012 Quebec general election.
Aurubis AG is a global supplier of non-ferrous metals and one of the world's largest copper recyclers. The company processes complex metal concentrates, scrap, organic and inorganic metal-bearing recycling materials, and industrial residues into metals. Aurubis produces more than 1 million tons of copper cathodes per year, and from these, a variety of products, such as wire rods, continuous cast shapes, profiles, and flat rolled products in copper and copper alloys. Aurubis also produces a range of other metals, including precious metals such as selenium, lead, nickel, tin, and zinc. The portfolio includes other products, such as sulfuric acid and iron silicate.
Rouyn-Noranda Regional County Municipality was a former regional county municipality and census division in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada.
The ISASMELT process is an energy-efficient smelting process that was jointly developed from the 1970s to the 1990s by Mount Isa Mines and the Government of Australia's CSIRO. It has relatively low capital and operating costs for a smelting process.
The Rouyn-Noranda Synagogue was a Jewish synagogue located in the city of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada. It was built in 1948 as the Beit Knesset Israel or Kneseth Israel Congregation by the Rouyn-Noranda Hebrew Congregation. A first wooden synagogue was built in 1932 before the same place.
Émilise Lessard-Therrien is a Québécoise politician, who is serving as a co-spokesperson of Québec solidaire since November 2023. She was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2018 Quebec general election. She represented the electoral district of Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue as a member of Québec solidaire until her defeat in the 2022 Quebec general election.
Associée à la fondation de la ville de Noranda, la fonderie Horne est considérée comme l'un des plus importants producteurs mondiaux de cuivre et de métaux précieux ainsi que le plus grand recycleur de matériaux électroniques d'Amérique du Nord.[Associated with the founding of the town of Noranda, the Horne Smelter is considered to be one of the most important producers of copper and precious metals in the world, as well as the largest recycler of electonics materials in North America.]
Glencore's Horne smelter in northern Quebec is North America's largest recycler of metals, such as copper, that are removed from electronic scrap.