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Intrinsic
      
location:
Collingwood
Gender: Male
 |  | Magnola smelter coming down (Danville)
< on 11/8/2009 4:34 AM >
|  | | | [ 13 buildings in all ]
Last week, that vow was kept as the wrecking shovels moved in and slowly started the process of tearing the main processing building down.
“We opted to pull down the largely metal building gradually because dynamiting it is not efficient,” said site manager Bernard Hince.
“Blowing up buildings only works if they are tall and mostly made of concrete. That way, the weakend concrete topples a great distance to the ground, bringing down the rest of the building in the process.
“At Magnola, most of the concrete is at the base of the buildings and the upper parts are made of metal. That metal does not topple well when blown up.”
Hince said the main processing building, where the smelter housed 24 electro-chemical cell chambers that transformed asbestos waste tailings into magnesium ingots, should be fully dismembered by the end of the week.
“We expect to have the main buildings down by the end of the year, then the service buildings down by the end of next year,” he said.
“The only buildings we will not touch will be the security building and the water treatment facility. We hope to keep the land serviced for industrial use and sell it to interested companies.
“If not, then we will tear out the service pipes and drains, and sell it as ordinary land.”
He said the water bassin used to store toxic chemicals will be drained and sealed with a plastic membrane, then covered over with dirt and plants.
“The process has been approved by the provincial environment department and is waiting final approval from the natural resources department,” he said.
Hince gave the Record a quick tour of the site on Tuesday as several large-track hydraulic shovels hammered away at the concrete frame and tore up the steel girders. Wheeled shovels hauled away the mangled girders, metal pipes and green aluminum siding to neatly laid-out piles for later pick up by trucks headed for recycling furnaces.
“It is sad to see this, but this plant was never able to attract a buyer
because of its rural location,” he said.
“If this had been in Sherbrooke or even Drummondville, there could have been a chance to sell it.”
The $700 million smelter was built in 2000 by the former Canadian mining company Noranda. It was supposed to revive the economy in this depressed mining town, which had been dependent on its Jeffrey asbestos mine for its livelihood since the early 1900s.
But after hiring 350 people to run it, Noranda realized too late that Chinese magnesium producers had cornered the world market for the popular light metal and had forced the price down lower than North American producers could match.
Noranda shut down the smelter in 2003 in hopes that the price for the metal would rise again. But by the time the price rebounded, Noranda had been absorbed by associate mining firm Falconbridge, which was then bought out by British-Swiss firm Xstrata in 2006. Arguing that the magnesium market was not sustainable as long as the Chinese dominated production, Xstrata said it was getting out of the business altogether.
It followed on the heals of Norsk Hydro, a Norweigan firm that had closed its magnesium smelter in Becancour, Quebec, also because of the drop in the world price for the metal.
“The same thing that is happening here also happened at the Norsk-Hydro smelter,” said Hince.
“They pulled it apart just like we are doing now, and all that is left now is the land.”
Several attempts to secure the 13 building Magnola complex from Xstrata by local authorities and an Ontario solar panel company failed because of costs and environmental concerns.
The smelter was using a chemical process that included hydrogen and chlorine, which gave off small amouts of toxic by-products such as hydrochloric acid, hydrocarbons and furans. Xstrata officials argued that toxic residue would have made a sale to any buyer difficult given that it could not hand over the complex with a completely clean bill of health.
It refused to give the complex to the town of Asbestos for a symbolic $1, thus turning down an opportunity to save millions of dollars annually in maintenance, taxes and demolition costs.
When solar panel maker ARISE showed an interest last year, it requested bargain-basement rates on electricity from Hydro-Quebec. The provincial government, having been embarrassed by a similar electricity deal to Norsk Hydro in the late 1980s, refused the request.
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Sirber
location:
Québec, QC
Gender: Male
everything wasn't good
| | Re: Magnola smelter coming down (Danville)
<Reply # 1 on 11/8/2009 4:49 AM >
| | | | so it's in Asbestos?
"Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god." — Sir Francis Bacon |
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HiggenBott
location:
qc
Gender: Male
| |  | Re: Magnola smelter coming down (Danville)
<Reply # 3 on 11/8/2009 2:12 PM >
| | | | C'est vraiment big comme place, j'avais passer par là quand j'étais aller à la mine Jeffrey.
http://www.flickr....72157611101754541/
"The question is not what you look at, but what you see." - Henry David Thoreau |
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micro
Gender: Male
Slowly I turned
| | Re: Magnola smelter coming down (Danville)
<Reply # 4 on 11/8/2009 3:12 PM >
| | | | 
The place is pretty good, but because it was so new it lacked some of the character of the other asbestos mills in the region. We were there a couple of years ago, back when they were still trying to figure out what to do with the place. It was essentially on standby and security was pretty tight. It'll probably be a bit easier now that they've started breaking the place apart, but I imagine it will probably be quite dark inside at this point and perhaps even less interesting than before.
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Sirber
location:
Québec, QC
Gender: Male
everything wasn't good
| | Re: Magnola smelter coming down (Danville)
<Reply # 5 on 11/8/2009 4:57 PM >
| | | | very nice pics micro!
"Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god." — Sir Francis Bacon |
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ArmyMan
Gender: Male
When there no more room in hell , deads will walk the earth !
| | Re: Magnola smelter coming down (Danville)
<Reply # 6 on 11/9/2009 3:05 AM >
| | | | Une belle photo de la place !
http://www.pwc.com...a-large_033108.jpg
When there's no more room in hell , the dead will walk the earth ! |
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Kn0zz
location:
Laval west side
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Magnola smelter coming down (Danville)
<Reply # 7 on 11/9/2009 2:24 PM >
| | | | Oh ! Magnola , ça me rappel une certaine nuit avec de l'eau au genou en soulier hahaha
Prout! un vieux explorateur finis! |
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