Horne Smelter says it will follow Quebec's 5-year arsenic emissions target, but it wants financial aid

The commodities giant that owns a copper smelter in northwestern Quebec says it will invest $502 million over five years to meet the provincial Environment Ministry's demands to reduce the amount of arsenic emitted into the air by the plant.

Switzerland-based Glencore held a technical briefing Thursday morning to outline its plan to reduce emissions from 100 nanograms of arsenic per cubic metre of air — already 33 times the province-wide standard — to 15 nanograms per cubic metre, five times the standard of three nanograms. 

Claude Bélanger, the head of copper operations for Glencore in North America, said the company would meet the 15-nanogram target by 2027, as requested by Environment Minister Benoit Charette in an announcement earlier this week. 

"We are fully committed and we will continue to improve," Bélanger said. 

He said the provincial norm of three nanograms of arsenic per cubic metre of air would be met in 84 per cent of the urban area surrounding the factory in Rouyn-Noranda by 2027.

The copper smelter is the only one in Canada and has been in operation since 1927. It employs 650 people, but has been a cause for serious concern in the region after studies have shown that residents of the city have higher rates of lung cancer than the provincial average.

Quebec could provide financial aid

Before reaching the 15 ng/m3 limit in the summer of 2027, the smelter plans to reach a target of 65 ng/m3 in 2023 and 45 ng/m3 in 2025.

However, its managers are not in a position to indicate how and when they could possibly reach the Quebec standard for the entire city.

Bélanger said Glencore is in talks with the Quebec government to get financial help for its investment in reducing emissions. 

The company's profits more than doubled in less than a year in 2022, hitting a record $18.9 billion in adjusted earnings, according to a Financial Times article published two weeks ago.

Like the entire commodities sector, Glencore is experiencing the most profitable period in its history as the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused commodity prices to soar.

The company also just paid its shareholders an additional $4.5 billion in dividends after seeing profits explode. In February, the company indicated it had set aside a provision of $1.5 billion to settle legal cases.

Reducing emissions over five years would take a significant technological overhaul, Bélanger said, including a revision of the copper transformation process to reduce the amount of time it takes, a new air-cleaning system and a new energy-efficient casting wheel.

2027 not soon enough: MNA

Émilise Lessard-Therrien, the MNA for Rouyn-Noranda/Témiscamingue, said it was disheartening that the population would still be living with this level or arsenic in the air for the next five years. 

The Québec Solidaire MNA said she was under the impression Glencore and the Coalitiaon Avenir Québec government had agreed on the target behind closed doors. 

"This target is problematic from the outset. I have a feeling we're in a story where the CAQ asked Glencore: 'Tell me how much you want to pollute and I will tell you how much you can pollute,'" Lessard-Therrien said. 

"It's as if the dice were already loaded."

Studies by Quebec's public health institute estimated that if the concentration of arsenic in the smelter's emissions wasn't reduced, between one and 14 additional residents would develop lung cancer by 2040. The new arsenic emissions cap, according to the Institut national de santé publique du Québec, will help to reduce the risk of developing lung cancer to a "level deemed acceptable in similar North American contexts."

According to a report from Radio-Canada, lung cancer rates in Rouyn-Noranda between 2013 and 2017 were 140.3 cases per 100,000 people, compared to the provincial average of 107.7 cases per 100,000 people.

Boileau has said that the new emissions cap would "strongly protect the health of unborn babies and young children."

Charette said the new agreement between Quebec and the factory will also include updated emissions limits on nickel, sulfur dioxide, lead and cadmium.