The Teck Cominco smelter, also known as the Teck Cominco Lead-Zinc Smelter, Cominco Smelter, and Trail smelter located in Trail, British Columbia, Canada, which is owned and operated by Vancouver, British Columbia-based Teck Cominco Metals Ltd—renamed Teck Resources—is the largest integrated lead-zinc smelter of its kind in the world. It is situated approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of the border between British Columbia, Canada and Washington, in the United States, on the Columbia River. Since 1896, there has been a copper and gold smelting operation in the area. The original company, Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, was founded in 1906 through a merger of several entities then under the control of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). In July 2001, Cominco and Tech Re