A former vice-president of nickel producer Inco and a member of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, Louis Renzoni, died recently in Toronto. He was 79.
A native of Copper Cliff, Ont., Renzoni worked for 40 years with Inco, beginning his career wielding a shovel. A chemical scientist, he became recognized as one of the mining greats after developing new and better chemical and metallurgical processes treating and refining nickel-copper ore. Of particular note, said the Hall of Fame during Renzoni’s induction ceremony in January of this year, “was his work to reduce sulphurous emissions which, at the same time, improved the recovery of economic minerals.” A graduate of Queen’s University (he earned his BSc in 1935 and his MSc in 1936 there), he worked briefly at a consulting firm’s laboratory in Brantford, Ont., before joining Inco at the company’s Port Colborne, Ont., nickel refinery in 1937. He led a small group of researchers whose main task was to develop a substitute for the conventional electrolyte used in the electro-refining of nickel.
He moved with Inco to Copper Cliff in 1948, where among his projects was an innovation involving the casting of nickel matte into sulphide anodes for direct electrolysis, which did away with the need to grind, roast and smelt ore to produce nickel metal anodes.
It was in the 1960s that he led the drive to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions at Inco’s Sudbury operations.
No mention of family?