Kitimat copper plant
~ study "couldn't be |

more preliminary"

At a news conference in Terrace
May 4 Kitimat mayor Rick Woz-
ney dropped a bomb at the end of
a discussion on the district high-
ways budget — a consulting com-
pany, he said, is studying Kitimat
as a possible site for a copper
smelter,

If the smelter goes ahead, how-
ever, it will be at least five years
before finished copper is shipped
out. "It couldn’t be more prelimin-
ary, " said Roger Taylor, a repre-
sentative of PRM Resources, the
company doing the study.

Kitimat is being viewed as hav-
ing several advantages for a
smelter location. Taylor said the
concept is to establish a custom
Smelter that would purchase copper
ore from a number of sources and
sell refined copper to a number of
markets, Due to the proximity of
several promising copper disco-
veries in northwest B.C., the
smelter operators would want to
time the opening of the plant to
coordinate it with the development

of copper mines in the region. That.

timing would be about four or five
years from now, he said.

The current study, funded by
$100,000 of joint federal and prov-
incial government money, will
establish a conceptual engineering
design from which PRM will
determine capital investment costs

and operating costs. Taylor said he

expects something in the order of
$300 million to build the plant and
a workforce of about 250 people to
operate it. The study is expected to
take three months.

Taylor also said the study will
give PRM some indication of
emission levels for developing a
preliminary environmental impact
study. Their target, he said, is
"zero discharge.”

"We'll never get that, but it’s
what we’re going to aim for," he
said.

The environmental factor is one
major reason a new smelter could
be a viable proposition. Taylor
said one effect of the recent politi-
cal and economic changes in East-
em Europe is the disclosure that
many of the copper smelters in
that part of the world are outdated
and outrageously dirty from an
environmental viewpoint. They
will have to be closed down in the
near future, and Taylor says due to
the scarcity of investment capital
in that part of the world it is
expected that the decommissioned
smeliers will not be replaced,
"We're all sharing the same atmo-
sphere, and we'd like to replace
them with a clean Canadian
smelter," Taylor said.

Environmental concems are also
the: reason the study was
announced at such an early stage,

Taylor said. "We wanted to make :

sure the public was informed."
Wozney said in the original
announcement that the smelter
would require about 25 megawatts
of hydroelectric power, and Taylor
confirmed that discussions have
taken place with Alcan about
power supply. "We're right on

mat’s attractions.”

The consultants like other aspects
of Kitimat. The original statement
announcing the study says, "The
preferred site for a smelter com-
plex is generally the Northwest
coast of B.C... the focus of the
study is Kitimat, due to its location
on tidewater and because it has
good road and rail access, suitable

industrial land, and a_ skilled |

workforce."
It also notes, "However, other
locations will be examined.”
Mineral exploration in the North-
west has turned up several promis-
ing finds of copper and other base
metals recently. Most prominent

are the Windy Craggy deposit, .

regarded as one of the biggest
copper deposits in Canada, and
Mount Milligan. Many of the gold
discoveries north of Stewart have
also shown high base metal values.

Ul overpay
.02 percent

TERRACE— Out of $31 million
in benefits paid out through the
Terrace Canada Employment
Centre for the 1989-90 fiscal year
ending in March, $640,000 was
paid out and subsequently
recovered as overpayments. The
Employment Centre’s investigation
unit conducted 2,546 investigations
and identified 557 incidents of
fraud, a recent statement from
investigation and control officer
John Jack says.

Benefits were paid out to a total
of 8,400 claimants in the region
covered by the Terrace office,

. which includes Smithers, Kitimat,

Houston, Hazelton, Granisle and
Stewart. Jack said $172,000 in
penalties was assessed on the
fraudulent claimants.

OUR POWER- SMART CITY got a 1 commendation recently from B. C. Hydro for participating in the
muncipal sector of their long-term energy conservation program. Shown here in the basement of
the Terrace Arena — where the power comes in — are (left to right) B.C. Hydro area manager
Roy Staveley, Parks and Recreation director Steve Scott, alderman Bob Cooper and Power-Smart

‘coordinator Del Meashaw. The arena underwent a power audit, and as a result practices and

equipment have been changed, and the city expects to save thousands of dollars annually In
electric costs.

eee a

their doorstep, that’s one of Kiti-

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