Cominco's integrated smelting and refining complex is located at Trail, in southeastern British Columbia. Smelting and refining have been carried out at Trail since the turn of the century. More than 700,000 tonnes of concentrates are processed at Trail every year, yielding a wide range of metals and related by-products, including refined zinc, lead, silver, gold, cadmium, bismuth, indium, germanium concentrate, germanium dioxide, copper sulphate, copper arsenate, sodium antimonate and a variety of sulphur products and agricultural fertilizers. The two major metals are zinc and lead. The majority of the zinc and lead concentrates treated at Trail come from the Sullivan mine (082FNE052) in Kimberley, B.C., and the Red Dog mine in Alaska.

Cominco Ltd. intends to process its existing 215,000 tonnes of stockpiled lead smelter slag at Trail by refurbishing and restarting its No. 2 Slag Fuming Furnace before the end of 1999. The slag stockpile is estimated to contain 35,000 tonnes of zinc as well as significant quantities of indium and germanium (Cominco Ltd., June 1, 1999). The refurbishment will cost $9 million and is expected to pay for itself within a year. Processing of the stockpile should be completed in approximately four years from the slag fuming furnace start up.

The Kivcet lead smelter and its associated slag fuming furnace will continue to process the current output of higher-value Zinc Plant residues and will ultimately consume the 475,000 tonnes of residues that are stockpiled at Trail.

Cominco also markets the slag for cement production and abrasive applications.

See http://www.cominco.com/operations/trail.htm (Cominco Ltd. website) for details of the Trail operations.