Glencore has contracted Quebec-based company Optel Group to provide environmental traceability technologies within its Canadian operations.

It refines metals at the Canadian Copper Refinery in Montreal, the Horne copper smelter and CEZinc refinery, and General Smelting lead alloy manufacturer in Quebec.

Optel has received C$7 million from governmental agency Sustainable Development Technology Canada, which enables Glencore to use the technology.

The technology will be deployed at the Horne smelter and the CCR refinery, said Claude Belanger, who heads Glencore's North American copper assets.

"The technology will enable us to evaluate our carbon footprint through the entire supply chain of processing various feeds including recycled material, our intermediate product copper anodes and the final product anode, including the percentage of recycled inputs contained in them," Belanger said.

Optel will develop and implement a method to track and assess the copper processed at the Quebec facilities.

It will also work with the Montreal-based CIRAIG research group, which focuses on life cycle thinking, and Propulsion Quebec, an electric and smart transport cluster, to provide an inventory of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions across Glencore's supply chain.

Optel's technology will allow Glencore to measure its GHG emissions as well as the amount of recycled content in smelted and refined copper. It will provide granular real-time data to track product provenance and recyclable content.