RE:Agnico’s strategy to consolidate Tech an example of centralized processing... operating for over 100 years. Will AEM centralize ore processing for the whole area.?
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/featured-article/trail-operations-at-100/
Trail Operations at 100
The mindset at the huge smelting and refining complex at Trail, B.C., has always been about using technical innovation to get even the squeal out of the metallurgical pig to maximize profits. That’s even more true today as Trail marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Limited (CM&S), later Cominco Ltd., and now Teck Cominco Metals Ltd., a subsidiary of Teck Cominco Limited.
Much has changed since 1906. Founding Father Walter Hull Aldridge would find little, in physical terms, he could recognize at Trail today. In his day, lead, copper and gold were the principal products, while zinc production (Trail’s mainstay today) did not exist.
Trail Operations has long been a market for miners that produce base metal concentrates, but Trail’s sources of supply are few in number these days. Inimical provincial government policies led to a lack of exploration activity in British Columbia during the 1990s, and consequently a lack of new mine development, as the established properties were depleted.
Teck Cominco itself is the largest zinc miner in the world. Much of the company’s 657,000 tonnes/year of zinc in concentrate feeds Trail’s 525,000-tonne/year appetite for zinc concentrates, which it typically converts into 295,000 tonnes of refined zinc. The company’s Red Dog mine in Alaska supplies 50% of Trail’s zinc concentrate requirements, and all the production of the Pend Oreille zinc mine in nearby Washington State is trucked to Trail.
“This leaves a gap that’s filled with material we buy from a variety of sources around the world including Peru and Bolivia,” explained Agg. “It’s a blend of concentrates containing the bulk of the indium, silver and gold we produce.”