Vieille Montagne

Vieille Montagne (French pronunciation: [vjɛj mɔ̃taɲ]) was a zinc mine in Kelmis (La Calamine), a town in Belgium between Liège and Aachen.

[1] The mine was once a bone of contention between Prussia on the one side and the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (later Belgium) on the other, that resulted in a piece of land that became the territory of Neutral Moresnet.

After he developed an original refining process, Belgian industrialist Jean-Jacques Dony received a decree from the Napoleonic authorities in 1806,[2] allowing him to mine the zinc ore deposit at La Vieille Montagne near Liège.

‘Vieille Montagne Zinc Mining Company and Foundries’) was created in 1837, after the independence of Belgium (which took over the Dutch claim to the neutral zone).

[3] The Belgian mine continued its operation until the end of the nineteenth century, when a workforce of 300 produced 8,500 ton of crude zinc annually.

The company survived two world wars and the inter-war economic depression, as well as fluctuations in the geological supply and market demand for zinc and lead.

The group continues its rolled zinc activity under the brand VMZinc, which still refers back to the historical link with Vieille Montagne.