For years, residents and visitors to SudburyIn Ontario, knew they were approaching the city nickel when they saw the superst of Incom.
“For us, this is a tag in our community,” said the mayor of Sudbury, Paul Lefebvre, to Global News. “You see superstacks, you are near you, right?” You are almost there because you can see it far enough. ”
But the Horizon of Sudbury undergoes a radical change because the plans are underway by the current owner Vale Base Metals (VBM) to demolish the structure, as well as its neighboring copper sister.
The company made the superstack and its little sister of copper obsolete by finding a more environmentally friendly way to manage emissions.
Before the arrival of the fireplace, which residents call “the fireplace”, Sudbury was known as an environmental disaster, while toxins spitting toxins and fauna in the region disappear.
“The vegetation could not survive,” said Lefebvre. “And certainly in the copper cliff area (where the mine is located) was really bad.”
Then came the superstack in 1972.
Standing over 1,250 feet. At the top, it was, for a short period, the largest self -supporting structure in the Western hemisphere until it is overwhelmed by the CN tower. Until he disappears, he will remain the largest fireplace in Canada.
“If you look at the story of the reasons for which it was built, it was just for the sulfur to go further instead of landing it right next to the community,” said Lefebvre.
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He noted that even if it was a major innovation for his time, things continued to evolve. In 2010, VBM, which acquired Incom in 2006, first announced the Clean AER project, which would see the imposing fireplaces replaced by environmentally friendly and effective methods to manage the extraction of nickel.
“Superstack and cotton have been emblematic monuments in the Grand Sudbury for decades,” said Gord Gilpin, Ontario Director of Operations for VBM.
“While we appreciate that the city’s landscape will be different after the demonstration of these structures, our company has evolved and improved over time and this project is part of this development. We modernize our facilities and reduce our environmental footprint and, in doing so, throwing the basics of the base to ensure that our next lunch in Sudbury is the success that our first years. ”
The company claims that this decision will eliminate 100,000 tonnes of sulfur dioxide emissions each year (equivalent to 1,000 sulfuric acid oil cars). He will also see the end of the superstack and his copper counterpart, because they were put out of service in 2020, and have been in sleep since.
The company is roughly finished with the demolition of the small copperstack and should draw its attention to the superstack this summer.
“It is a massive company of how they will do this,” said Lefebvre. “They had to prepare for the past five years and here we are, we are at dawn.”
The company claims that it will take around five years to lower the tricks and although some have argued that the towers should remain in tribute to the history and efforts of the city to clean, the mayor said that it was not a realistic option.
“There are people in the community who think we should keep it, but again, it’s not ours, right?” He said. “It is society and it is a passive, because if they leave it there, the whole rust and the interior will do it, then it becomes a passive.”
Lefebvre also noted that the structure is at the top of an active nickel mine, so there is no way that it is an attraction to visit and would be something that should be admired from afar.
Although it is sad to see it, the mayor noted that it is a strange touch that a place that once held such a dark landscape would hold such an important game in the global environment.
“The irony of all this is now Sudbury, which was one of the most polluted places in the 1930s, the 1940s, the 1950s and the 1960s, now obviously contributed enormously with our critical minerals to our environment,” he said. “All electric vehicles and all batteries, it needs nickel and we are those that provide it in our entirety in the world.”
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