The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting anticipates a closure of its smelter in four years if a new federal air regulation is implemented, company President and CEO Peter Jones announced yesterday. Environment Canada is proposing a new national guideline that would reduce by 25 per cent the maximum amount of sulfur dioxide HBMS can discharge. "If enacted, it is more than likely that the smelter would have to close" at the end of 2008, Jones said as guest speaker at the Healthy Flin Flon forum at the Friendship Centre. A closure of the smelter, where copper is treated and the resulting sulfur dioxide discharged out of the smoke stack, would impact in the neighbourhood of 300 employees ? about 22 per cent of the company's current workforce. Jones told the crowd of nearly 30 people that the "technical solution" to the potential regulation ? building an acid plant that would turn the smelter gas into sulfuric acid ? is not feasible for HBMS. The capital cost of such a plant, he said, combined with Flin Flon's location "hundreds if not thousands" of kilometres away from a sulfuric acid market, means the project wouldn't make sense. Jones said HBMS is now involved with lobbying efforts and discussions in hopes of preventing the "arbitrary reduction" from seeing the light of day. "What is really frustrating is there is no scientific base for this reduction," he said. HBMS is currently in full compliance with existing sulfur dioxide discharge rules, which Jones noted are principally regulated by the Manitoba government. Mayor Dennis Ballard said he is optimistic some long-term discussions will get underway and that the results will be favourable for his community. "You know, surely the government isn't foolish enough to pass legislation that would shut us down," he said. "Somewhere along the line, I see the problem is that the legislators pass the legislation and the bureaucrats, I don't blame them, follow it to the letter, and sometimes it's just not reasonable. The legislators have to look at both sides, at what is good to have in place and what you can afford to have in place."
