November 24, 2010 - Greater Sudbury citizens are invited to attend a Nov. 25 meeting focusing on Xstrata Nickel’s application to have longer to meet the province’s new air emissions guidelines for sulphur dioxide.   The meeting will be held between 2 and 8 p.m. at the Falconbridge Community Centre.  Marc Butler, director of regulatory affairs with Xstrata’s Sudbury operations, said the company has asked to have until 2015 to meet the province’s current standard of 0.25 parts per million of sulphur dioxide.  The company is currently emitting 0.34 parts per million of sulphur dioxide.  He said he hopes the Ministry of the Environment will make a ruling on Xstrata’s request within the first half of 2011.  Xstrata Nickel is planning investments in its Sudbury operations to meet the new environmental guidelines. Butler said he doesn’t know how much these investments will cost, but they could easily get up to hundreds of millions of dollars.  Vale announced recently that it will spend $1.5 to $2 billion on an atmospheric emissions reduction project.  It takes time to implement technology because it needs to be tested first on the ground, Butler said.

January 22, 2010 - Xstrata Nickel cut production at its Falconbridge smelter Thursday afternoon because the weather was causing an inversion effect, where the plume is closer to the ground, said a spokesperson from the Ministry of the Environment.  Kate Jordan said the ministry received three complaints from the public about a sulphur haze over the Ramsey Lake area starting at about 3 p.m.  "Once we received complaints, we followed up first with Inco to ensure that it wasn't anything that was happening at the smelter in Copper Cliff," Jordan said.  Inco's plume, however, was travelling away from the city, she said.  "Then our environmental officer followed up with Xstrata and they were already aware of the situation and had cut back operations," Jordan said.   Jordan said the weather conditions were causing an "inversion" where the plume is lower than it would be normally.  "They do monitor for it. They know when they see that that condition is going to be present, they cut back operation," Jordan said.  Dominique Dionne, vice-president of corporate affairs at Xstrata in Toronto, said the smelter was brought down when the problem occurred.  "We have systems that tell us when there is an exceedance (in emissions) and we haven't had any of that so far," she said.  Jordan said the ministry was in contact with Xstrata Thursday afternoon.  "Based on all the information that was provided by the company in our discussions with them, we don't have any immediate concerns for impacts to the environment or to public health," Jordan said.