1867), an American mining and metallurgical engineer, took a position with the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), Sir William Van Horne,[7] to negotiate a deal with Heinze.
[7] At that time, Consolidated "controlled many of British Columbia's largest lead, silver, gold and copper mines, as well as the large reduction works at Trail.
[8] A metallurgist from Ontario, Randolphe 'Ralph' William Diamond who was hired by Consolidated, developed the process known as differential flotation that separated minerals by letting them "float" by "sticking to bubbles formed in certain mixtures of chemicals and oils".
[9]: 12–30 While 1924, was a peak year in terms of production, by 1927, sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions from the smelter had contaminated the vegetation and the land of the Columbia River valley in Washington State.
[6] In 1934, Cominco had initiated heavy water research at the smelter but it did not gain momentum until the outbreak of World War II.
[12][13] In the 1950s, a hydroelectric dam—the Waneta Dam—was built south of Trail on the Pend D’Oreille River, which provided inexpensive electricity to the smelter.
"[5] In the spring of 2017, Teck Resources announced that they were considering a CA$1.2-billion deal to sell its Waneta Dam to BC Hydro.