10 Castlegar News 1988 Review, March 30, 1988 COMINCO: Upgrading projects total $258 million The latest round of modernization at Cominco's Trail operations will almost complete a process which began 11 years ago. Cominco’s Trail operations have $258 million in approved projects for a construction schedule which runs into March 1990. The largest replacement project is the Trail lead smelter modernization project, which is being replaced at a cost of $130 million. “This is not an expansion of our lead smelting capacity,” says Cominco Trail public relations officer Richard Fish. “It is intended to get us back to our historical production capacity of 160,000 tons, which is what the present smelter used to be capable of.” The current capacity of the lead smelter has been cut to about 135,000 tons because of equipment wear and process inefficiencies. The current smelter is being replaced with a new smelter which uses the “QSL” process. At the heart of the QSL process is a reactor which is a 41 metre-long by 4.5 metre-diameter _ brick-lined cylinder made of 2.5-centimetre thick heat resistant steel. “The term ‘reactor’ has caused a lot of questions,” Fish says. “There is nothing nuclear about it.” A reactor is any container in which any chemical reaction takes place, he said. The new process will “almost eliminate” smoke from the Trail operations, adds Fish. “The QSL smelter will produce a low volume of high-strength sulphur dioxide-gas that will be treated in the $40 million sulphur-gas handling system we completed a few years ago as part of the earlier phase of modernization,” says Fish. “The result is that the zine stack, the one near the highway, will be our main stack.” Fish says the old lead stack near the river will be obsolete. No smoke will come from it Cominco has also signed a new partner in part of its modernization project. Airco has contracted with Cominco to build a $48-million air separation plant to supply the new smelter with large amounts of oxygen required in the QSL process. “Our new QSL smelter will use a lot of oxygen, so a plant is being built for Airco industrial gases by Cominco crews with Cominco Engineering Services Ltd. providing the construction service,” says Fish. The plant is being built on the site of the old No. 2 and No. 3 zine tank-rooms alongside the highway. Fish says its called an air separation plant rather than an oxygen plant because it takes air and breaks it down into oxygen, nitrogen and argon. The process's five steps include compressing the air, purifying it, cooling it, liquifying it and then Separating it so it can be distilled into its different parts. Most of the oxygen produced and some of the nitrogen will be used in the new smelter and elsewhere in the Trail op@gations. Comineq@will provide operators and maintenance services for Yhe new plant and Airco will have a supervisor in charge of the plant. The air separation plant is expected to be on line in one year. Cominco will spend $36 million to increase its zinc solution purification capability to enable the plant to handle the larger amounts of silica that will be coming from the Red Dog mine concentrate in mid-1990. The improvements will be done to the sulphide leaching plant. “Too much silica going through the sulphide leaching plant can literally gum up the works as it turns into a gel and blinds filters and clogs thickeners,” says Fish. New projects include a $14 million copper arsenate project. The plant is being built near the research gate in Tadanac. As well, a $6 million project is under construction for a germanium concentrating plant built in the Tadanac operations and a germanium refining plant built in part of the Warfield warehouse as part of the electronic materials operation. The first part of the copper arsenate Project to be built is the copper sulphate section. The second part of the project is the copper arsenate section. Copper sulphate is used as an additive to the milling process at the Sullivan mill in Kimberley where it is used to float zinc-bearing mii Is. The copper ph section will be completed later this year. The copper arsenate section will be completed in mid-1989 and will provide material for the growing demand for a wood-preservative called chromated copper arsenate, or CCA. “CCA is amazing stuff,” says Fish. “It is completely non-toxic and wood treated with it will last indefinitely.” The $6 million germanium plant is expected to be finished by the summer and will create 12-15 new jobs says Fish Germanium is used in night vision systems such as windows and lenses and also acts as a catalyst in the production of plastics. “Concentrates from Red Dog will contain ger- manium too, and a $500 to $600 per kilogram, finding a way of recovering this rare element became a lot more interesting in recent years,” Fish says. Other projects include ‘sustaining’ projects worth a total of $14.5 million. These projects are required to keep the regular operations running smoothly and include such things as replacement of electrolytic cells in the lead refinery, a new lead concentrate unloading system, a short rotary furnace in the refineries and replacement of a heat exchanger among other things. “By modernizing and keeping costs under careful control, Cominco can be a profitable and steady employer in this area, and be an integral part of a solid economic base upon which a prosperous community and stable service sector can thrive,” says Fish. Know Anyone New Who Has Recently Moved To Our Fair City? We Would Like To Welcome Them... .. Services Welcome Wagon Provides: * Welcoming New Residents * Welcoming New Babies ~” Welcome Wagon Call: - design + brochures/ cards/ letterhead * signs * photography + desktop publishing + displays 2171 Loff Rd. Thrums, B.C. 399-4104 Fast. Dependable. Service with a professional sense of urgency. That’s how Loomis Courier delivers. Across town or across the country, specializing in coast-to-coast, door-to-door overnight delivery. The familiar yellow Loomis vans and trucks serve thousands of Canadian companies every day. Why? Because we’re in business for business. That’s where Loomis Courier delivers. We also offer service to over 7000 points in the United States and over 95 countries internationally. Castlegar News 1988 Review, March 30, 1988 11 Years of Service COLUMBIA AUTO SERVICE Full line of Petro Canada Products Automotive Repairs Phone 365-5422 Phil Zaytsoff and Larry Webster ~~ SY E BEE 22 Years of Service Bw _ DR. 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