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QUINCY SMELTER ASSOCIATION
Brief Smelter History
The Quincy Smelter is the only remaining copper smelter in the Lake
Superior Region. Built by the Quincy Mining Company, the smelter
used heat and chemical processes to turn copper ore into ingots. The
ingots were then sold and shipped to factories where they were
turned into products such as copper wire or tubing.
From 1898 to 1967 the Quincy Mining Company Smelter at Ripley
processed copper, first from its mines and then later from its
reclamation plant. The smelter complex is built on the stamp sand of
the Pewabic mines' mill. It continued to melt scrap copper until 1971.
Among the buildings remaining on the site are the three-story blast
furnace, built in 1898, with additions in 1904 and again in 1910. The
sandstone faced mineral warehouse built in 1904 is reached by a
460-foot trestle. The site also includes three rectangular warehouses,
a concrete block briquetting plant built in 1906, a powerhouse, a
casting house, carpenter and cooper shop for making barrels, as well
as a machine shop, and laboratory.
Superior Region. Built by the Quincy Mining Company, the smelter
used heat and chemical processes to turn copper ore into ingots. The
ingots were then sold and shipped to factories where they were
turned into products such as copper wire or tubing.
From 1898 to 1967 the Quincy Mining Company Smelter at Ripley
processed copper, first from its mines and then later from its
reclamation plant. The smelter complex is built on the stamp sand of
the Pewabic mines' mill. It continued to melt scrap copper until 1971.
Among the buildings remaining on the site are the three-story blast
furnace, built in 1898, with additions in 1904 and again in 1910. The
sandstone faced mineral warehouse built in 1904 is reached by a
460-foot trestle. The site also includes three rectangular warehouses,
a concrete block briquetting plant built in 1906, a powerhouse, a
casting house, carpenter and cooper shop for making barrels, as well
as a machine shop, and laboratory.
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