In an age of environmental consciousness, employees at the Xstrata Zinc Canada Brunswick Smelter don't want to compromise health and safety for the sake of production.
Mr Peter Hancock GM of the smelter said that the facility’s emissions continue to decrease every year. We're living in a first world environment in Canada and the way we see it here is that we have to have excellence and every year significant improvement in environment safety, health, community and that's our moral licence to operate. When we outline our strategy to all of our people, we said that listen guys that is No 1 to show we can be significantly improving.
The Brunswick Smelter site in Belledune began operations in 1966 with much of its product coming from the Brunswick Mine lead/zinc operation, located 40 kilometres west of Bathurst. Today, about 45% of the smelter's product comes from Brunswick Mine. However, with Brunswick Mine expected to shut down in 2011 due to depleted resources, the lifespan of the smelter is also in question. Hancock said if the smelter was to close soon after Brunswick Mine the company wants to leave behind a legacy of community stewardship.
Mr Hancock said that "In terms of the environment, our emissions continue trending down so the guys here have a good story and something to be proud of. Whether the place is a viable business or not upon mine closure, there's been a heck of a number of improvements."
Over the years, the smelter in Belledune has faced numerous adversaries claiming the business has not lived up to environmental standards. Some alleged that emissions from the smelter have polluted the area. Past soil studies have been done by the New Brunswick Conservation Council, the Village of Belledune and the provincial government, including the 2005 Belledune Area Health Study by the Department of Health. The latter study determined that people in the area were more susceptible to contracting cancer and having a higher mortality rate. But the report did not link the higher cancer and mortality rates with the region's heavy industry.
In November 2006, Xstrata Zinc commissioned a team of environmental and health professionals to conduct a study of soil in the Shore Road area of the village. The objective was to determine if levels of metals in soil in this area were related to Xstrata Zinc's lead smelter in the village and if corrective action was required.
In 2007, a study team took more than 700 soil samples from more than 180 residential and public properties in the greater Belledune area. 24 of those private and public properties were deemed to have levels of lead higher than the study team's recommended maximum level of 500 mg/kg.
Mr Hancock acknowledges that some smelters in the world don't have stellar environmental standards but that's not the case in Canada and here in Belledune. He addressing environmental concerns is a necessity and not something that can be lost for the sake of production.
He said that "It's the kind of thing that has to happen concurrently with production. The way we view it is if we're not achieving significant continuous improvement in those things, there is really no point to be worrying about our production, our cost and our survival as a business, because we just don't see where we would have a moral licence to operate."
Mr Hancock said that the smelter has made great improvements in health and safety in the workplace. Basically the last 5 years we've averaged 25% improvement. In terms of the health of the employees, because when you're working in a lead smelter you're obviously exposed to lead our average blood lead continues to steam down. To our knowledge, we've got the lowest blood lead of any smelter in the world even though it's kind of an old smelter with old technology."
He added that the treating of non concentrates is something the smelter has increased in recent years. Some have concerns about what is being recycled at the smelter but Mr Hancock ensures it's not something to fear.
Mr Hancock said that the development of our non-concentrate has been really good stories for us some people imagine that that business can be threatening to health and to the environment and that's absolutely not the case. The kind of materials that we treat is a very focused tiny group of materials in the whole world of recycling and they are only materials that are perfectly suited for our technology.
He added that "This is not barrels of PCBs or not smelting somebody's asbestos piles or any of these scary things. It's pretty benign stuff."
