The zinc plant in Balen was founded in 1889. It was founded by the Vieille Montagne society for the purpose of processing zinc ore from Åmmeberg, from which the ore was transported in the Zink mine since 1857 by Vieille Montagne.
The smelter is located on a 244 ha site. Since 1910, both zinc and lead were won through an integrated process. During the 30's of the 20th century one began to study the thermal in the electrolytic process of zinc recovery. During the fifties and sixties of the same century, plants were provided for roasting ore through a fluidized bed. Around 1973 a process was also introduced to extract iron from the residues.
The company came into the hands of Union Minière, merged with Metallurgy Hoboken and then called Umicore, to become part of Nyrstar in 2007.
The factory plant led to strong growth in the Wezel neighborhood and eventually the establishment of an independent parish there in 1898. Trivia
In 1971, a legendary strike took place at Balen to enforce wage increases. This was again overcome in 2010, but now as a "fake strike" for the recording of the film: Vegetables from Balen, which is a further editing of the same-named play of Walter van den Broeck already published in 1971.
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