National Smelting Company
The National Smelting Company was a nationalised zinc smelting company in Avonmouth, United Kingdom. It was formed by then Minister of Munitions Winston Churchill to produce mustard gas during World War I.
After World war I, it was bought by private business interests. From 1929 it became part of Australia's Imperial Smelting Corporation. A.E. Higgs Esq. became the Director of the National Smelting Co. in 1948. The site – also known as the Britannia smelting works – was where the famous Imperial Smelting Process was developed. From 1967, the Avonmouth Works was home to the largest and most efficient zinc blast furnace in the world.
After the cessation of production in the 1970s, it remained open until 2003 as a stock holding and distribution centre. The site is being redeveloped as a 485,000 square feet (45,100 m2) supermarket distribution centre for Asda, and a recycling plant for SITA UK.
During the later part of World War I, it was proposed to make Avonmouth Docks the UK centre of production of dichloroethyl sulphide, also known as mustard gas. However, its production was against the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which explicitly forbade the use of "poison or poisoned weapons" in warfare. Hence covered by the Official Secrets Act, as a cover the Ministry of Munitions under its then Minister Winston Churchill nationalised many small smelting works under the new National Smelting Company (NSC). Before the outbreak of World War I, much of Britain's zinc had originated in Australia, but had been smelted in Germany. The NSC was hence publicly commissioned to build a new zinc smelting works and sulphuric acid plant at Merebank, Avonmouth Docks.
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