A Brazilian court on Thursday cleared mining giants BHP and Vale, and their Brazilian joint venture Samarco, of responsibility over a 2015 dam collapse that caused the country’s worst ever environmental disaster.
The dam’s rupture on November 5, 2015 near the town of Mariana unleashed a giant torrent of toxic mud that swamped villages, rivers and rainforest, killing 19 people on its way to the sea. Scientists say the sludge caused “permanent” pollution on the river Doce and its coastal plain.
At 381 metres, the Vale Base Metals—formerly Inco—Superstack, which is part of the company’s Copper Cliff smelter complex, was Canada’s tallest freestanding structure when it was completed in1972. It later lost that distinction to the CN tower, but today it still stands as the tallest chimney in the Western Hemisphere.
After Vale announced in September that work will begin to bring down the Superstack once it finishes dismantling its smaller Copperstack in 2025, people sent in stories to Vale about family members who were part of the construction for the behemoth structure. Locals who feel attached to it are asking: won’t the horizon of Sudbury, a place known to the global mining industry as Nickel City, feel empty once its iconic Superstack comes down?
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Thousands of Sudburians voted on trio of options following superstack’s decommissioning
Vale Base Metals said it will build a monument to its famed superstack, following feedback from the Sudbury community.
In an Oct. 25 social media post, the Brazilian nickel miner said that was the preferred option that emerged after thousands of community members voted on three potential options to pay tribute to the decommissioned stack.
BHP (ASX, NYSE: BHP) faces a potential $47 billion payout in damages over the 2015 Mariana Dam disaster in Brazil, believed to be country’s most catastrophic environmental incident, as a lawsuit against the miner kicked off on Monday in London’s High Court.
The trial, expected to last up to 12 weeks, will determine whether BHP is legally responsible for the collapse of the Fundão tailings dam in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The structure failure caused a massive flood that claimed 19 lives, destroyed villages and severely polluted water sources for local communities. The dam was owned by Samarco, a joint venture between BHP and Brazilian mining giant Vale.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Indonesia already accounts for 55 per cent of the world’s nickel production, and that output is only expected to grow. But locals fear losing precious farmland over a commodity that might soon lose its lustre
Atop a hill overlooking Loeha Raya, a cluster of villages on the shores of Lake Towuti, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, all that can be seen is green. For kilometres around, the hills are covered in leafy pepper plants, roughly two metres high, growing in neat rows reminiscent of a vineyard, their tiny fruit slowly ripening and turning red, at which point thousands of workers will harvest them, laying the peppercorns out to dry in the hot Southeast Asian sun.
Down at the lakeside, where lumbering ferries dock from the town of Sorowako, across the water, the idyllic calm of the pepper fields is nowhere to be found, however. Large posters greet arrivals with angry slogans: “Reject mining,” “Save our village” and “Defend agricultural land!”
(Bloomberg) — Vale SA said it will produce more iron ore this year than previously expected, even with prices trading near two-year lows as China’s steel slowdown weighs on the global market.
The world’s No. 2 iron ore supplier said in a Wednesday presentation to investors that it expects to produce 323 million to 330 million metric tons of the steelmaking ingredient this year, compared with a prior forecast of 310 million to 320 million tons.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
But it will be expensive — perhaps as much as $100 million by 2030, top executive says, as they must be taken down almost brick by brick
Sudbury’s tallest structure is slated to come down, and when it does the moment will be bittersweet not only for residents and workers but even the mining brass who have concluded it can no longer stand. The Superstack “has been with the city for more than 50 years, and there are emotional attachments to landmarks,” acknowledged Gord Gilpin, head of Ontario base metals with Vale.
“It’s internationally recognized with Sudbury, with the company, and with the mining industry.” Many older residents recall when the 1,250-foot cloud-tickler was erected and “we have our own stories of the history behind it,” said Gilpin.
(Photo by Stan Sudol From 1990s)
Sudbury, Ontario (September 4, 2024) – Today, Vale Base Metals (VBM) announces it is moving forward with the dismantling of the copperstack and superstack at the Copper Cliff Smelter Complex.
These structures have been decommissioned following the successful completion of the approximately $1 billion Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction (Clean AER) Project, which was a cornerstone initiative in our ongoing, long-term environmental stewardship program for Sudbury. The dismantling of the copperstack and superstack marks the final chapter of this ambitious initiative.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
‘There is a lot of interest from US companies here,’ Baxter Hunt says
Visiting dignitaries are always asked why they are in Sudbury. This week, The Sudbury Star met with Baxter Hunt, US Consul General, during his multi-day tour of the area. Hunt had met Greater Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre at PDAC in Toronto earlier this year. Lefebvre invited him to visit.
“I promised him I was going to get up here soon,” said Hunt, who started in this role in the fall of 2023. It is a three-year assignment. Back in July, the Hunt family drove up to Lake Temagami. He called the area “spectacular” and since he has heard of Killarney, he seems keen to experience more of the north.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Former Barrick, Xstrata executive Shaun Usmar to steer Brazilian miner’s nickel, copper operations
Shaun Usmar, a mining executive with more than three decades of global experience, has been selected CEO of Vale Base Metals. He succeeds Deshnee Naidoo, who stepped down last March. Usmar will assume his new role at the end of this year and will be based in Toronto.
Vale Base Metals is a spinoff of Brazil’s Vale SA and runs its global base metals assets. It is one of the world’s largest producers of nickel, copper and cobalt with Canadian operations in Sudbury, Thompson, Man, and Voisey’s Bay, Labrador.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Stobie project is expected to cost $205 million over the next four years and could be a model for future projects in the basin
Vale Base Metals has announced it is going to rejuvenate the historic Stobie Mine property with the creation of a new open pit mine. And the work will be carried out using several local contractors who will employ USW Local 6500 members to carry out the work.
Gord Gilpin, director of Ontario Operations for Vale Base Metals, said the new mine will be a significant four-year project carried out at a cost of more than $200 million.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/
Vale has partnered with First Nations, Steelworkers and an operator to start an open-pit mine at old site
What’s old is new. Vale Base Metals announced Wednesday it will start operations at an open-pit mine at the site of the old Stobie Mine in Greater Sudbury.
The $205 million project will be a partnership between Vale, Thiess Mining, United Steel Workers and local First Nations. It’s expected to produce 300,000 tonnes of ore, primarily nickel and copper, by the end of 2024. The previous Stobie Mine operated underground from 1914 to 2017, though it also began as an open pit mine in 1890.
(Bloomberg) — Vale SA has selected veteran mining executive Shaun Usmar to take the helm of its base metals division as the Brazilian metals producer seeks to boost copper and nickel production, according to people familiar with the matter.
The board of the Rio de Janeiro-based company chose Usmar to head Vale Base Metals, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The appointment has yet to be confirmed and it’s possible things could change, one of the people said.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Company celebrates 50th anniversary of the Godfrey Drive greenhouse that helped the massive Sudbury regreening project
For more than half a century, Vale’s greenhouse on Godfrey Drive in Copper Cliff has been making a beautiful contribution to the community. Vale Base Metals held a celebration June 6 to mark 50 years for the greenhouse in Copper Cliff and the company’s contribution to the regreening of Sudbury.
The facility on Godfrey Drive was built 50 years ago by INCO, but a previous company greenhouse existed in Copper Cliff before that, providing plants and seedlings throughout the community.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/
And about half those trees came from seedlings grown by Vale and its greenhouse in Copper Cliff
More than 10 million trees have been planted as part of Greater Sudbury’s regreening efforts, and Vale (formerly Inco) is responsible for nearly half of those seedlings. They started out tinier than a thumbnail, but 50 years later, the first trees that were planted are now soaring into the sky, covered in needles or leaves, and providing shade, nourishment and homes to all kinds of critters.
About five million of those seedlings got their start at the Vale greenhouse in Copper Cliff. A large group, including children from the nearby elementary school, gathered at the greenhouse on Thursday to celebrate its 50th birthday.
