'biznes Volume 1 - Greater Sudbury's #voiceofbusiness

SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION
Clean AER Project Site,
Copper Cliff Smelter
Stuart Harshaw
Vice President of
Vale’s Ontario Operations
The origins of Vale’s base metals business
can be traced back more than a century to
Greater Sudbury.
It was here, in 1883, that a blacksmith named Tom
Flanagan first noticed copper-bearing rock while
helping construct the Canadian Pacific Railway. And
while it was copper that first caught everyone’s attention,
it wasn’t long before the enormous potential of another
mineral – nickel – made Sudbury Canada’s first major
mining camp.
Today, Vale’s Sudbury Operations employ 4,000
people and consist of six mines, a mill, a smelter and a
nickel refinery – making it one of the largest integrated
mining complexes in the world.
From the earliest days of mining, a combined 42
billion pounds of nickel and copper have been mined in
the Sudbury Basin, and recent exploration reveals there
is still much more in the ground.
Maintaining sustainable operations in a centuryold
mining camp requires ingenuity and commitment.
Some would argue that a 114-year-old operation is the
definition of sustainable, but the truth is that once ore is
mined it doesn’t grow back. The ore that is easy to find
has been mined, and new deposits are typically deeper
and harder to extract economically.
Vale is tackling the challenge with innovation and
significant capital investment. In fact over the past 10
years, despite challenging market conditions, Vale has
invested more than $4.3 billion to modernize and update
infrastructure and equipment. This translates into
significant economic development in the community,
as typically about 80% of the company’s service and
supply expenditures are spent locally.
For example, in February of 2014, Vale opened
Totten Mine, the first new Vale mine in Sudbury in
40 years. It features the latest in mine technology and
safety automation, including a wireless underground
communication system and state-of-the-art control
room.
In addition, Vale’s $1 billion dollar Clean AER Project,
where AER stands for Atmospheric Emissions Reduction,
is designed to significantly reduce sulphur dioxide,
particulate emissions and greenhouse gases from Vale’s
Copper Cliff smelter. Once complete, the project will
represent an 85% reduction in sulphur dioxide emissions
and significantly cleaner air for the Sudbury community.
The project is currently 65% complete, with more than
$750 million spent to date.
Perhaps the greatest single example of sustainability
in action is represented by Creighton Mine. Production
at Creighton began in 1901 and has continued ever since.
Vale is currently mining at about the 8,000 foot level at
Creighton, and its intent over the medium to long-term
is to mine down to about 10,000 feet – or about five-anda-half
Empire State Buildings stacked underground.
Significantly, at the 6,800-foot level, Creighton is proud
to host SNOLAB, an international laboratory hosting
Nobel-prize winning research in physics underground.
Vale is proud to be a part of the community and looks
forward to many more years of operation as we continue
a second century of mining in the Sudbury Basin.
#voiceofbusiness Volume 1 39