Butting out the big smoke: Sudbury nickel miner said air emissions project more than half complete.

• Author: Migneault, Jonathan
• Position: Mining

Despite rumours to the contrary, Vale said it is still on track to meet its environmental commitments and complete its $1-billion Clean AER project by 2018.

"We've looked at some minor adjustments to our capital investment in the next year, but we're not changing our commitment to completing the project and meeting our environmental commitments in 2018," said Dave Marshall, director of Vale's Clean AER project.

AER (pronounced "air") means "atmospheric emissions reduction."

Marshall provided a project update to mining industry insiders at a Canadian Institute of Mining event on Jan. 14.

Marshall said Vale has completed around 55 per cent of the work required to finish the ambitious project, which is projected to reduce the Copper Cliff smelter's sulphur dioxide emissions by 85 per cent from its current levels when the project wraps up.

The project will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent.

Despite low commodity prices, with nickel trading around US $3.86 per pound in mid-January, Marshall said the project has stayed on schedule.

"We've looked at some minor adjustments to our capital investment in the next year, but we're not changing our commitment to completing the project and meeting our environmental commitments in 2018," he said.

The biggest expense, said Marshall, is to upgrade the smelter's converter aisle, which takes molten matte from a large furnace--containing metals and smelters --and removes any iron so only nickel and copper remain.

The process, which uses oxygen to separate the iron from the molten matte, currently releases large amounts of sulphur dioxide, which makes its way up Vale's iconic superstack.

Despite reducing its sulphur dioxide emissions by 90 per cent since the 1970s, Vale still releases 150.000 tonnes of the toxic gas each year.

The Clean AER project will cut down those emissions to between 20.000 and 25,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide per year.

To achieve that reduction in emissions, the gas from the aisle converters would be diverted to a new gas cleaning facility--which would cool the gas and remove any nickel, copper...