The small, sunny, riverside city of Trail, B.C. has long been known as the quintessential BC industry town. Mining giant Teck anchors the local economy, and has done so for generations. Teck Resources Ltd. has owned and operated a smelter in Trail for over 100 years, producing zinc, lead, silver and a vast array of other metal and chemical products. Teck has invested over $1.5 billion over the last 20 years including in significant environmental improvements in emissions (air quality, dust reduction, effluent quality), recycling zinc and lead, and land and water remediation.

After more than a century of hosting one of the world’s largest lead-zinc integrated smelters, the region surrounding Trail is a hotbed of metallurgical expertise and industrial activity ranging from scientific, environmental and engineering consulting, to electronics recycling, to purifying smelter byproducts to produce materials for the semiconductor industry and other thermal applications.

MIDAS is a public-private enterprise initiated by KAST, a non-profit regional economic development organization, and Fenix Advanced Materials, a private company with substantive experience in commercialization of metallurgical industry by-products. This partnership aims to leverage the region’s technical talent, commercialize new products and technologies through applied research and a value-add approach to smelter byproducts, and diversify the local economy. We believe industrial innovation and metallurgical sector spin-offs can create high quality, knowledge-driven jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities to be mined.