🏭 James Bridge Copper Works

The James Bridge Copper Works was a copper refining plant in Walsall, Staffordshire, England. It was established as a smelting plant in 1917 on a site formerly used for ironstone and coal mining and as a brickworks. From 1920 it was owned by the Wolverhampton Metal Company who expanded the works. It was temporarily closed in 1931–2 because of local pollution issues and during the Second World War due to blackout regulations. After the war the plant specialised in reclamation of copper from waste materials and helped to alleviate a national shortage of copper; by 1964 the plant had electrowinning facilities. The works was purchased by Imperial Metal Industries Limited in 1967 and the electrowinning facilities were greatly expanded over the following decades. The site closed in 1999.