Process Gas Project: Delivering Environmental Sustainability

The latest achievement in our continuing effort to reduce our sulphur dioxide and particulate footprint is the $288 million Process Gas & Particulate Emissions Projects at Sudbury INO.

The PGP and PEP journey was successfully completed in the fall of 2021 thanks largely to local talent and Sudbury’s established innovation ecosystem within the mining industry.

The PGP project started in 2005 with a scoping study to examine innovative technical solutions to further reduce smelter SO₂ emissions in response to future environmental regulatory requirements. Phase I, completed by 2015, focused on improvements and upgrades to the roaster process, acid plant and electric furnace, as well as the installation of new hybrid converters.

Phase II commenced in 2017 and included installing new secondary hoods on the converters, as well as a new fan and stack to improve capture of SO₂ in the converter aisle. Several other processes and equipment upgrades were completed that enabled Sudbury INO to reduce emissions while increasing capacity.

Finally, the PEP portion of the work, which reduced particulate emissions largely through the construction of new storage buildings and baghouses, commenced in 2018. This brought feed handling activities indoors and introduced a three-season vehicle tire wash that reduces the generation of particulate in the plant and surrounding community.

The completion of the projects enhances Sudbury INO’s ability to bridge the increasing requirements for its smelter to receive and treat third-party feeds as its existing mining operations transition to Onaping Depth at Craig Mine.

Despite the complexities of making such significant upgrades to our smelter operations while it continued to operate, the projects were completed with more than 1,200,000 hours worked with zero Lost Time Injuries.

The PGP/PEP team’s safety program was coordinated with the smelter’s own internal goal: “Zero Harm.” It is based on the principle that every worker is entitled to a safe working environment and is responsible for working safely, all integral to a sustainable operation.

We are continuing to monitor SO₂ and particulate emissions at monitoring stations throughout the community. Since PGP/PEP’s completion, we have met the site-specific standard commitments as set out by the Province of Ontario.

Further, the projects provided a significant economic benefit to the community through the engagement of the Glencore/Hatch Integrated Team and our trade partners.

This modernization of our smelter operations truly is a reflection of our primary Purpose — to responsibly deliver the commodities that advance everyday life.

Since publication of the above blog post, we're proud to say the Process Gas Project and Particulate Emissions Project received further recognition from Canadian Consulting Engineer, a magazine for professional engineers working as consultants in the construction field. We invite you to read more in their article, 2022 #CCEawards Showcase: Process Gas Project and Particulate Emissions Project.