Mining giant Glencore plans to have a new furnace at its Sudbury operations by 2026. The project is expected to cost more than $100 million.
The company’s current electric furnace was built in 1978, which makes it one of the longest-running furnaces of its kind in the world, according to Peter Xavier, vice-president of Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations.
In mining, furnaces are an important part of smelting operations. They heat up ore and separate it into two products: matte and slag. Matte contains metals like nickel and copper, while slag is a waste product with trace amounts of metals.
Xavier said the furnace still runs well, but it has reached its end of life after years of regular maintenance and upgrades.
“There’s a point where you can’t just continue to repair and rebuild the site and walls because the connection point between the site and walls to the base plate becomes more and more difficult to tie in,” he said.
The furnace’s last major rebuild was in 2015, but Xavier said it’s now time to replace it.
Up until the 1990s, Glencore — then Falconbridge Limited — operated two furnaces in Greater Sudbury. At that time, they upgraded one furnace to handle a higher capacity.
Peter Xavier is the vice-president of Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations. He says the company’s current furnace is reaching its end of life. (Markus Schwabe/CBC)
When it comes time to rebuild the furnace, Xavier said the company will have two options. They can build the new furnace at the same site as the furnace they decommissioned, or they can tear down the current furnace, and rebuild at that spot.
The advantage of the first option is that the current furnace would keep operating while Glenore builds the new one. But Xavier said that option would also cost more.
“You’re duplicating a lot of systems because the current furnace, you know, all the feed systems, the vent systems, the electrics, everything is going to that location,” he said.
“And so to build it in parallel, you’re duplicating a lot of that. So that drives up the cost.”
The second option would mean Glencore’s nickel operations in Sudbury would be without a furnace while the new one is being built.
But Xavier said the company expects to wind down its current Sudbury mining operations in 2025 and 2026 as it transitions to its Onaping Depth Project — going deeper underground to reach valuable minerals.
Shutting down the furnace would have a bigger impact on the company’s refinery in Norway, where materials from Sudbury are processed.
