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Horne Smelter
Our history
Historical highlights for Horne Smelter
1911
Edmund Horne’s first trip to the Lac Osisko area
1920
Horne’s fourth trip and first staking of 70 acres
1921
Fifth trip and discovery of gold deposit
1922
Noranda created on May 1
1923
First diamond drilling and discovery of a copper deposit
1926
Construction of smelting plant and drilling of production well No. 3 begin
1927
First copper cast on December 17
1973
Continuous smelting plant (reactor) starts production
1976
Final tonne of ore extracted from Horne Mine on July 26. Total production for Horne Mine from 1926 to 1976: 53.7 million metric tonnes of ore, 1.131 million metric tonnes of copper, 325,240 kg of gold, 693,600 kg of silver
1984
Construction and start-up of electronics recycling circuit
1989
Sulfuric acid plant begins production
1992
Automatic casting wheel starts up in July
1997
Noranda converter becomes operational in November. Gallen Mine (zinc) reopens
2013
Glencore acquires Xstrata. Horne Smelter now belongs to one of the world’s largest diversified natural resource companies
2016
Horne Smelter becomes certified as ISO 14001:2015 compliant in environmental management
2017
On December 17, 2017, Horne Smelter celebrated the 90th anniversary of its first casting. Over these 90 years, the smelter produced: 12,404,390 tonnes of copper, 40,614,617 ounces of gold, 847,040,998 ounces of silver
2019
Construction begins for VELOX pilot project
2021
VELOX pilot project commissioned
On December 17, 2021, Horne Smelter celebrated the beginning of its 95th year. 2022 will be a year of celebration and festivities to mark the anniversary of the only copper smelter still operating in Canada—the smelter that created the town of Rouyn-Noranda.