The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
Smoke will be pluming again out of the 381-metre Superstack at Vale’s Copper Cliff Smelter Complex when the 2014 planned maintenance period ends Thursday. After three weeks of being shut down, production will resume with feedback at the smelter’s two furnaces.
Instead of annual shutdowns for maintenance as occurred for decades, the nickel giant now schedules maintenance periods every 18 months.
This year, the planned maintenance period for Vale’s surface plants — its mill, smelter and refinery — began the week of May 5 and is the final stages of completion, company spokeswoman Angie Robson said. Planned maintenance periods for the company’s Sudbury mines will be staggered throughout the spring and summer.
Robson said there is considerable economic benefit to the community during these maintenance periods because several local mining supply and service companies are involved in the work. During planned maintenance periods in surface plants, as many as 1,200 workers are typically employed.
Dick DeStefano, executive director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association, said maintenance shutdowns at Inco and now Vale have always had a major impact on mining supply companies in Northern Ontario, bringing in tens of millions of dollars each period.
Putting an exact price tag on the value to the mining supply and service sector is difficult because of varying purchasing procedures and the number of companies, said DeStefano.
“But the number is very significant, maintains jobs in the community and improves the longevity of the Vale operations,” said DeStefano.
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