Swansea Vale Spelter Co
of Llansamlet, near Swansea, spelter refiners
c.1873 Company established[1].
1876 The Swansea Vale works were the first smelter to be built in Britain primarily for the production of zinc metal.
1913 The works were gutted by fire; 4000 retorts were destroyed[2].
1914 At the outbreak of war, the company was in German hands. A businessman with interests in a large zinc deposit in Burma, was entrusted with the task of buying control of the Swansea Vale works which was then being reconstructed[3].
1920 Works closed due to low prices and a strike at the works[4].
1921 National wage settlement; Swansea Vale, the largest in the country, began heating its furnaces[5].
1923 Acquired by National Smelting Co which would enable links with the other important smelter at Avonmouth[6].
1925 The Swansea Vale Spelter Works at Llansamlet wer making considerable extensions in the roasting and acid departments. This work was part of a scheme under consideration for modernising the whole of the plant with a view to meeting foreign competition. The production of the roasting and acid departments were enlarged and the whole of the processes overhauled and improved.[7]