Massive Sudbury Vale pollution reduction project half done – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 23, 2016)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

The director of the largest environmental project ever undertaken in Sudbury wants to clear up any misconception that work on Vale’s Clear AER (atmospheric emissions reduction) project halted in 2013 when the project was revamped.

The Brazil-based mining company scaled back what was to be a $2-billion retrofit of the Copper Cliff Smelter Complex after the decision was made to operate one furnace instead of two.

Dave Marshall told an audience this week that the project is 55 per cent complete, $625 million has been invested in it so far and it is on target for completion by January 2018.

Marshall was guest speaker at the January meeting of the Sudbury branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, held at Dynamic Earth.

He said the project was revised after $31.3 million and 400,000 hours of engineering were invested in studies from 2006-12.

A year into what was to be a four-year project, Vale cut the project in half because nickel feed that was coming to Sudbury from Newfoundland and Labrador was going to be processed in Long Harbour, NL.

Another consideration was that Vale’s focus changed from becoming the biggest mining company in the world, to one that gets the greatest value from its assets and becoming the best miner in the world.

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