Canadians sometimes like to point their collective finger at the United States when it comes to placing blame for air pollution, particularly air pollution that causes acid rain. Yes, Inco and Noranda are large single sources of the sulphur dioxide that rains down as sulphuric acid miles from the source. But they, with government help, are making concerted efforts to reduce those emissions. What about those U.S. smelters?
Well, it seems the mining fraternity’s commitment to improve the environment is not limited to Canada. Magma Copper recently shut down the last of its three reverberatory furnaces at its San Manuel, Ariz., copper smelter. They’ve been replaced by a single flash furnace. The new smelting sys tem and a plant to convert the sulphur dioxide to sulphuric acid cost $150 million (US). Able to process one million tons of copper concentrate a year, it is the largest copper smelting furnace in the world.
It took some arm twisting in the form of a court order, a few hefty fines and a $20-million bond that would have been forfeited if changes weren’t made before a court-imposed deadline, but Magma managed to clean up its act 11 weeks ahead of the deadline.
Arm twisting or not, the end result is a much cleaner operation. Ultimately, everyone benefits.
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