Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment announced plans on Friday to order nickel giants Inco (N-T) and Falconbridge (FL-T) to cut sulphur dioxide emissions from their smelting operations in Sudbury, Ont.
Inco confirmed that it has been in talks the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) on a program to comply with a draft control order. The company proposes to spend $100 million on fluid bed roaster (FBR) off-gas scrubbing technology to reduce annual sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions at the plant by 34% to 175,000 tonnes by the end of 2006, as required by the order.
The technology would also decrease the total metal emissions of nickel, copper, arsenic and lead by 80-100 tonnes per year.
The project involves the installation of water scrubbers to capture the SO2 gases and particles before they escape from the emissions stack.
Inco proposes to immediately lower the limit for SO2 ground level concentrations (GLC) by 22% to 0.39 parts per million (ppm) over specified monitoring periods. The MOE control order calls for a reduction in GLC to 0.34 ppm by April 2002.
The company believes that the proposed standard can be achieved through changes in operating practices. Costs are expected to be nominal.
GLC refer to the concentrations of SO2 that are emitted from the stack and, rather than dispersing, are forced to the ground by atmospheric conditions.
As part of the control order, Inco would agree to continue research into the technology and economics of further reductions in SO2 and total metals emissions. A final report from Inco on achieving additional reductions would be submitted to the MOE by the end of 2010. So far, Inco has spent $3.5 million on such research.
The order would expire at the end of 2012. The company expects talks with the MOE on its specifics to wrap up next week.
Inco doesn’t expect the measures to have any significant effect on annual production of nickel and other primary metals from its Ontario division.
The MOE’s proposed order aims to improve Sudbury’s air quality and reduce the emissions that cause acid rain. It also seeks to ensure that both companies are more accountable to the Sudbury community. They would be required to implement a system to notify the public of poor-air-quality days.
In other news, Inco has named Pierre Alla, a former executive of Paris-based multinational Suez, to head the startup of its US$1.4-billion Goro nickel-cobalt project in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia.
The project is currently being financed. It should be under construction late this year and in production in late 2004. Inco has an 85% interest. The remainder is held by Bureau de rcherches geologiques et minires (BRGM), a French government agency.
Goro has a reserve of 47 million tonnes grading 1.59% nickel and 0.17% cobalt. A further resource of 219 million tonnes grading 1.57% nickel and 0.18% cobalt is still outside the reserve.
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