Brunswick Smelter

The Brunswick Smelter is located in Belledune, Gloucester County, New Brunswick. 

The smelter closed in 2019, and the adjacent Material Handling West site ceased operations in 2022. 

The Brunswick Smelter has a long history. 

It opened in 1966 to process local concentrate from the Brunswick Mine, located 35 kilometres south of Bathurst. The smelter produced metallic lead and zinc. 

The facility also housed a plant that produced phosphate fertilizers using by-products from the smelting process. The fertilizer plant closed in 1995. 

When Brunswick Mine shut down in March 2013, the smelter lost its primary mill feed. Imported raw materials were used until 2019, when the facility's closure was announced.  

Glencore continued operating the Material Handling West site after the smelter closed. The site, which handled bulk products such as lead and zinc concentrates, metallurgical coke, and sulphuric acid, ceased operations in November 2022. 

The Brunswick Smelter site is being decommissioned and rehabilitated in accordance with local legislation and the highest international standards. 

Operations are monitored on a day-to-day basis by the local closure team, supported by the multidisciplinary team responsible for Glencore Canada's closed sites.

The water treatment plant, in operation since 1980, will be decommissioned after 2028 once surface water is clean enough to be discharged directly into Chaleur Bay.   

The Material Handlig West site will also be decommissioned through another government approval process.