{"id":81807,"date":"2026-06-11T20:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/81807\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T20:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:15:11","slug":"glencore-to-cut-air-pollution-at-copper-smelter-after-quebec-gives-miner-more-time-to-hit-emissions-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/81807\/","title":{"rendered":"Glencore to cut air pollution at copper smelter after Quebec gives miner more time to hit emissions targets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Horne copper smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, about 500 kilometres northwest of Montreal.Supplied<\/p>\n

Glencore PLC said it would resume its work to cut air pollution at its Horne copper smelter after Quebec on Thursday passed legislative amendments giving the Swiss mining giant several more years to meet tougher provincial emissions targets. <\/p>\n

But the company stopped short of promising it would keep the facility open in the long term, saying it needs the Canadian government to step up and match Quebec\u2019s effort with concrete financial support to help pay for new pollution control systems. Ottawa\u2019s backing is \u201cessential to secure the economic viability of the smelter,\u201d Glencore said in a news release. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe regulatory certainty provided by the Government of Quebec, along with its existing targeted programs, speaks to how much the province values the copper sector,\u201d Marc B\u00e9dard, Glencore\u2019s chief operating officer of custom metallurgical assets, said in the release. \u201cWhat remains is decisive federal action to solidify Canada\u2019s commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glencore did not say how much it is seeking from Ottawa but a person familiar with discussions between the company and the government said it\u2019s about $150-million. The Globe and Mail is not naming the person, who wasn\u2019t authorized to share details of the private talks. <\/p>\n

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The Horne smelter is located about 500 kilometres northwest of Montreal in Rouyn-Noranda, a city in Quebec\u2019s Abitibi-T\u00e9miscamingue region. As Canada\u2019s only copper smelter and one of the continent\u2019s biggest recyclers of discarded electronics, it is widely seen as a critical asset in the country\u2019s push for greater economic sovereignty. <\/p>\n

In February, Glencore announced it was suspending investment plans worth $1-billion for the century-old smelter after the failure of negotiations with Quebec over toxic arsenic emissions, raising the spectre of the facility\u2019s closure. Those plans included $300-million to reduce pollution as well as other upgrades. <\/p>\n

The company had been in talks with the Quebec government since last summer about securing the long-term viability of the Horne site, as well as a related refinery in Montreal\u2019s east end. The two parties were at odds over the targets for reducing emissions at Horne and the timeline for achieving those reductions.<\/p>\n

Horne is now operating under a ministerial authorization that limits arsenic emissions in the ambient air of the smelter\u2019s property line to 45 nanograms a cubic metre as an annual average, with a scheduled decrease to 15 ng\/m3 in March of next year.<\/p>\n

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Glencore asked Quebec to modify that authorization to give the company until the end of 2029 to meet that new target and provide assurances that it will maintain that limit until around 2033 and not reduce it further. It received that approval from the government on Thursday, through the passage of Bill 11. <\/p>\n

The Horne smelter operations and their effects on human health have been the subject of controversy for years. <\/p>\n

A Quebec Superior Court judge authorized a class-action lawsuit last October on behalf of citizens who claim to have been affected by emissions from the facility. The judge cited a 2022 report by Quebec\u2019s public health institute that indicated that past and current exposure to arsenic and cadmium concentrations from the facility could put residents at a higher risk of cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Horne copper smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, about 500 kilometres northwest of Montreal.Supplied Glencore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[123],"tags":[1064,1051,1065,1042,1040,1066,563,1039,1057,1058,1054,1041,1038,39,1062,457,1056,1049,132,1077,1043,1044,70,1052,1053,899,1067,1047,1072,1073,1075,1070,1074,1068,1071,1045,1060,1061,69,1059,1069,1050,789,1063,1055,1048,1046,1076],"class_list":["post-81807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-glencore","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-glencore","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}