Vale expects to miss 2015 sulphur dioxide emissions target

Nickel giant Vale doesn't expect to meet its sulphur dioxide emission targets this year, a decade after they were set.

Vale was granted a five-year extension, and has until the end of this year to get its annual emissions down to 66 kilotonnes.

The company reports it's currently emitting about 150 kilotonnes, but is aiming to be down to 20kilotonnes by 2018 when $1 billion worth of upgrades are completed atits Copper Cliff smelter.

"There's going to be a couple steps," said Dan Legrand, Vale's director of process technology.

"The big one will occur in 2018 when we start capturing all of the converter gas."

Vale has made other changes to its emissions process racking up government credits that allow it to miss the emissions deadline without penalty.

The Ministry of the Environment is keeping a close watch.

"I think it's important that the company continue to work towardsgetting down to that 66 kilotonne limit," said ministry district manager Brian Cameron.

Meanwhile, the pressure is on for smelter operations supportmanager Mike Zanini, who's supervising the upgrades as smelting continues.

"We like to use the analogy that it's like trying to do open heart surgery still trying to produce and keep everything going through the plant, while trying to modernize and upgrade at the same time," he said.

That "surgery" is expected to continue until 2018, when Zanini said they expect "to have the majority of those emissions reductions delivered."