Glencore is planning to wind down its Horne Smelter — Canada’s largest copper-metal producing plant — citing steep environmental upgrades and operational costs, Reuters reported on Monday.
The Swiss commodities giant currently operates the Horne and the Canadian Copper Refinery (CCR), both located in the province of Quebec. The Horne smelter processes concentrates to make copper anode, which is then turned into cathode by CCR.
While no production figures have been published for these assets, industry sources cited by Reuters have pegged their annual output at more than 300,000 tonnes. Much of the copper metal production goes to the US, a net importer.
A closure, according to these sources, would impact as many as 1,000 workers employed on the two sites, which they estimate would require more than $200 million to…
