Overview -
Brunswick is the world's largest underground zinc mine. The mine is located on 1,030 hectares of property in northeastern New Brunswick, Canada, 30 kilometres south of Bathurst.
The mine began operation in 1964. The life of mine plan calls for an average mining and milling rate of 9,000 tonnes per day through 2007, and mining at a lower rate until approximately 2010, depending on the average rate of recovery and the price of zinc.
There are 800 employees at the mine and another 400 at the Belledune smelter. Production and maintenance personnel work two shifts per day. The mine operates seven days a week.
The mine processes 9,300 tonnes of ore per day and produces 2,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate per day. In total, it produces 3.6 million tonnes of zinc, lead, copper and silver ore per year.
Key customers
of the mine are the Brunswick smelter in nearby Belledune, New Brunswick for lead concentrate; the CEZ refinery near Montreal for zinc concentrate; the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Québec for copper concentrate; and various European customers.
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