Latest news with #Superstack
CTV News
4 days ago
- General
- CTV News
CTV Your Morning learns about the Superstack and Copper Cliff
Northern Ontario Watch The hosts of CTV Your Morning learn more about northern Ontario after a viewer's video from Copper Cliff shows them the Nickel City's iconic Superstack, which is to be taken down this year.
CBC
16-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Dismantling of Sudbury's Superstack could start this summer, says Vale
If all goes to plan, mining giant Vale will start dismantling the iconic Superstack in the northern Ontario city of Sudbury this summer. Built in 1972, the 381-metre chimney located at the Copper Cliff smelter is the tallest in the Western Hemisphere. The Superstack was built to spread sulphur dioxide emissions, diluting them over a wide geographic area. But in 2018, after years in delays complying with new government environmental regulations, Vale completed its $1-billion Clean Atmospheric Emissions Reduction (AER) project which reduced those emissions by 85 per cent. The company built two smaller stacks to replace Superstack, which was no longer needed. The Superstack has been inactive since 2020, and Vale has been working on plans to safely dismantle the structure since then. "In order to eliminate the risk of deterioration or anything else, we need to take it down," said Paul Guenette, the project lead for Vale's Superstack dismantling. Because the Superstack sits atop a working processing facility, and near homes in Sudbury's Copper Cliff neighbourhood, Guenette said an implosion was out of the question. The company looked at a lot of different ideas to take down the massive concrete structure. "I had my own where we kind of dug a hole underneath to make it sink," Guenette said. They landed on a plan to dismantle it from the top down. Crews have finished building two elevators on the outside of the stack to lift people and equipment up and down. "We'll be setting up a platform at the very top, which is what they're doing today for the next couple of weeks," Guenette said. "After that, probably later on this summer, we're going to see this proprietary piece of equipment that's going to be hoisted up from the inside. It's going to sit on the concrete at the very top, and it's gonna essentially cut pieces of the concrete and make it fall on the inside." Guenette said the work will be done without interrupting work at the smelter below. As the machine dismantles one level of the Superstack, crews will lower it until it eventually reaches the bottom, which could take five years. He said the machine will be operated remotely, although six workers will be at the top to clean up and make sure all debris falls inside the Superstack, where there's no risk of harm. While some people consider the Superstack to be an eyesore, it's also a recognizable part of Sudbury's skyline. Guenette said he has mixed feelings about dismantling the landmark.
CBC
16-05-2025
- General
- CBC
How mining company Vale plans to dismantle Sudbury's Superstack
Paul Guenette, the project lead for Vale's Superstack dismantling, explains how the world's second tallest chimney will be dismantled from the top down.
CBC
20-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Sudbury Vale boss talks about need for job cuts and the dismantling of the Superstack
Social Sharing The head of Vale's mines, mill and smelter in Sudbury says they recently had to layoff some workers in order to stay competitive. But director of Ontario operations Gord Gilpin did not say how many non-union jobs were cut in the past few months. And he wouldn't rule out further layoffs to the mining company's Sudbury workforce of 4,000 people. "You know we're facing a real need to simplify our business and as a consequence of that, unfortunately we've had to make some tough, tough choices, but they are for the better of the business longer term," Gilpin told reporters, after addressing a chamber of commerce luncheon on Wedndesday. He was also asked about the sluggish price of nickel, which is currently hovering around the $7 US per pound mark. While it has historically gone through boom-and-bust cycles, it has been in a prolonged gully for over a decade now. "We are concerned, but at the same time, I think we're blessed with a great endowment, a pro-mining community," Gilpin said. "But the reality is the world changing with the amount of nickel that's coming on the market and we've got to stay competitive." During his speech, Gilpin updated the crowd on several projects the mining company is working on around the Sudbury basin, including the new Stobie open pit mine, the planned expansion of the Copper Cliff mine and the long awaited "dismantling" of the Superstack. The landmark 381-metre smokestack has dominated the local skyline for over 50 years, but with the steady reduction of sulphur emissions over the decades, the stack was decommissioned in 2020. Gilpin says he understands that the Superstack is a "very meaningful, very important" symbol for Sudbury, but that it "doesn't make sense" to keep it standing in the middle of the Copper Cliff smelter complex, saying Vale spends "a lot of money maintaining that to keep it safe." He said the work to take it down is set to get underway by the end of this summer. Asked about the current trade war with the United States and how that could affect the electric vehicle battery market for nickel, especially considering a 2022 supply agreement Vale made with Elon Musk's Tesla, Gilpin told reporters its tough to make plans amid the current uncertainty. "It's something we're concerned about. It's something that we're looking at, thinking about. But until we get through this period of volatility, it's kind of impossible to predict, where that's going to go," he said.
