Facilities at the Port of Québec
We receive, store and ship materials through our port facilities based at the Port of Québec.
The Port of Québec serves North America’s industrial and agricultural heartland and is a cornerstone for the transshipment of solid and liquid bulk cargo along the St. Lawrence making it part of the supply chains of the steel, mining, agri-food, and energy sectors.
Glencore’s facilities are located on land leased from the Port. The facilities include railway tracks, a storage dome, a screw-type ship-unloading device, enclosed conveyor systems and several bag filter dust collectors. All the equipment for loading and unloading ships and rail cars belongs to Glencore, while operations and maintenance are contracted out to St. Lawrence Stevedoring. All loading and unloading operations are covered.
Our facilities at the Port are divided into two sections:
Nickel concentrate is created during primary processing. We ship nickel concentrate from Raglan Mine via the Port of Deception Bay to the Port of Québec, where it is loaded onto railcars for shipment to the smelter in Sudbury. About eight trips are made each year, carrying a total of about 240,000 tonnes.
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Nickel concentrate handling, a closed process - Clip 1 (French only)
Nickel matte is produced from the smelting of ore concentrates, which lowers the iron content and removes impurities. The nickel matte is shipped from our Sudbury Smelter, part of Sudbury INO, to the Port of Québec by rail and loaded onto ships bound for Kristiansand, Norway.
The Sudbury Smelter and a Norwegian refinery, Nikkelverk, have had a connection since the 1920s, and we have been shipping nickel matte there since 1960. About 22 ships travel each year from the Port of Québec to our facility in Norway, carrying a total of 140,000 tonnes.
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Nickel concentrate handling, a closed process - Clip 2 (French only)
The MV Arvik, which means “bowhead whale” in Inuktitut, was built in 2021 and designed to meet the highest technological standards and international environmental requirements, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our supply chain. The MV Arvik is capable of making eight shipments transporting a maximum of 240,000 tonnes of concentrate per year.
Environmental leadership
ISO 14001
The Port operations have been ISO 14001-certified since 2015. ISO 14001 is an internationally accepted standard that outlines how to put an effective environmental management system in place.
Green Marine
Our Port of Québec operations has been certified under the Green Marine Environmental Program since 2016, which is a voluntary environment certification program for the North American marine industry. It is a rigorous, transparent and inclusive initiative that addresses key environmental issues through its six performance indicators.
Contact us
We welcome your questions and comments about our operations at the Port of Québec. Reach us by contacting infoquebec@glencore.ca.