5-year modernization plan will cost CCR $46 million

A 5-year modernization plan costing $46 million will be undertaken by Canadian Copper Refiners (CCR) at its Montreal East plant.

David Goldman, vice-president responsible for the CCR division of Noranda Inc. (TSE), said the plan, named CCR 2000, will place the copper-refining section of the plant in the forefront of technology.

No layoffs will result from the modernization, part of which will involve new environmental control mechanisms, Goldman said. Over and above the modernization project, CCR has undertaken the construction of a $10-million waste- water treatment plant as well as a $22-million plant for the treatment of precious-metal residues.

CCR, one of the largest copper and precious-metal refineries in the world, has been in operation since 1931. The CCR plant in 1987 produced 312,000 tons copper cathode, 958,000 oz gold, 24 million oz silver and 950,000 oz platinum- palladium sponge.

Through CCR 2000, company officials are hoping to make operations more efficient and improve energy usage and material recycling. Among the intended results are savings of $9.8 million in annual operating costs, a $4.9-million reduction in the inventory of metals in the process of being refined, additional refining capacity of 22,000 tons; elimination of $2.2 million in capital expenditures, and improved working conditions. Improved handling

The modernization plan will bring about the following changes: mechanization of anode receiving, automation of anode weighing, rebuilding of electrolytic cells, modification of electrolytic handling, improvement of the electrode electrical contact system and mechanization of production of copper starting sheets.

Raw material, anode copper, is received by CCR from Noranda’s Gaspe and Horne divisions in Quebec as well as from base-metal producer Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting. Other raw material processed at the plant includes blister copper, copper scrap, precious metal ingots and foreign precious metal residues.

The new water treatment facilities, CCR says, should decrease emissions in plant effluents by at least 90%. Also, included in the new processing plant for precious- metal residues is environmental control equipment which should further reduce atmospheric emissions.

Also recovered at the CCR plant is selenium, which is used mainly in high temperature pigments and the photocopying industry. CCR, the largest producer of selenium in the world, recovered 950,000 lb of the mineral last year.

This summer, another Noranda division, Canadian Electrolytic Zinc (CEZ), announced a $120-million modernization program for its zinc reduction plant in Valleyfield, Que. The CEZ program includes construction of a new automated electrolytic cell house which will replace two existing cell houses while maintaining annual production capacity of about 230,000 tonnes zinc.