It is high time that the owner of the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, the Swiss multinational Glencore, set about drastically reducing its arsenic emissions into the air, but also the tons of arsenic that it buries. near a residential area.
Currently, the Horne Foundry claims to comply with the standard imposed on it by the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC). It is 100 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3) of arsenic, a strongly carcinogenic element, whereas the general standard is 3 ng/m3. And this is an annual average, which on certain days the foundry greatly exceeds. According to data obtained by The dutythe arsenic emissions captured near the smelter exceeded the limits set by the ministry on 93 occasions between 2017 and 2021.
A study by the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), the publication of which was withheld for 32 months, shows that the population of Rouyn-Noranda has a lung cancer rate significantly higher than the Quebec average, while births of low birth weight babies are more numerous there. The fact that arsenic emissions were even higher before is certainly no excuse.
The MELCC is due to issue a new “sanitation certificate” this fall, valid for a period of five years. The time has therefore come to review this permission to pollute. Already, Minister Benoit Charette has mentioned the possibility of imposing a daily cap on arsenic emissions, subjecting the smelter to a reduction schedule and extending the limits to other heavy elements, such as cadmium, nickel and lead.
A native of Rouyn-Noranda, Pierre Céré recalled in our pages the heavy legacy left by Noranda, the company that operated the copper mine — closed since 1976 — and the foundry since the end of the 1920s and which is found in the course of many financial transactions within the bosom of Glencore. Noranda, “this killing machine of the world”, as documented in a film by Robert Monderie and Richard Desjardins. Like the latter, Pierre Céré pleads for the outright closure of the foundry, which employs 660 people.
This is not the position of the groups of citizens who are calling for the cleanup of emissions from the foundry, such as Stopping Rejections and Toxic Emissions (ARET) and Mothers at the Front, as well as the Mayor of Rouyn-Noranda, Diane Dallaire, and even the member for Québec solidaire, Émilise Lessard-Therrien. All believe that Glencore, by putting in the means, can succeed in reducing its emissions to levels compatible with public health.
This is what remains to be demonstrated. Glencore has not revealed the standards it will be ready to meet and the Legault government has not revealed its requirements either.
In an interview given to To have to, representatives of the Horne smelter have indicated that the company will submit a “major” action plan within a few weeks to reduce arsenic emissions. However, the completion of this major project, called PHENIX, was scheduled for 2024 and has been postponed to 2026. It corresponds to an investment of 200 million.
From the outset, the smelter produces copper anodes which are then processed by another Glencore subsidiary, Affinerie CCR, of Montreal East, in order to increase their purity. The activities of the smelter and the refinery are perfectly in line with the Quebec industry for the production of metals essential to the electrical and electronics industry. Both facilities run on electricity, a green energy in Quebec compatible with Glencore’s ambitions to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Currently, the Horne Smelter derives 80% of its metal value from tailings processing and 20% from electronics recycling. It could reduce the proportion of mining residues, some of which are more contaminated than others, and increase the volume of recycling, a way forward that is part of the circular economy. The nature of the inputs has a direct influence on arsenic emissions.
The global metals market and the pressure from the large-scale commercialization of electric vehicles provide Glencore with an ideal context to pursue the modernization of the Horne smelter. Glencore, a transnational financial company with no qualms, has no doubt in its interest to make this foundry, powered by renewable energy, a global example, a showcase of its environmental ambitions.
The Horne smelter can become a jewel only insofar as public health does not suffer from its activities. Otherwise, it’s closed. Factories that poison workers and the public no longer have a place in Quebec. You have to believe this bygone era, even in Rouyn-Noranda.