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Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 61 No. 28
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
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1.30 INCLUDES TAX
First pour is here: RTA eyes the finish line Rio Tinto Alcan has gleefully boasted that it has produced its first hot metal in the modernized smelter. The company held a special celebration inside the site’s new cafeteria, dubbed Henning Hall in honour of company executive Paul Henning. The company is hailing the milestone while also noting that they still have work to do to reach the ‘inauguration’, which will be the formal conclusion of all construction work, expecting in 2016. “We’re near the end,” said RTA Project Director Michel Charron. “We’re completing the journey for constructing the plant.”
Even so, they say the final two per cent of the project will be a long one still. “The last couple per cent on anything is always the longest ones,” he said. The smelter will conclude with a final price tag of $4.8 billion. The workforce, as of July 7, sat at just over one thousand people, but Charron says the workforce will dwindle rapidly by the end of this month and in to September. On the training side, General Manager of BC Operations Gaby Poirier says they are “far from the end” on con-
cluding worksite training for the new smelter. “We’ve got about 55 per cent of the training done,” he said, saying the ‘theory’ side of it is well established but it will take the arrival of operational equipment to get the training through the practical phase. “Practical training will go all over the rest of the year to the ramp up because we’re still running line three and four from the old smelter, so the employees from lines three and four will start to join more next fall while we’re doing the ramp up.” Continued on page 8
A view of the Rio Tinto Alcan smelter from above on their pollution control centre. The company announced they’ve produced their first ingots from the modernized smelter, which is still undergoing the last bits of construction before the plant can begin 100 per cent operations.
La fin for Lapointe, company sold to Hatch. /page 6 The history of logging in the Valley.
/page 9 PM477761
Civeo gets deal with LNG Cameron Orr Civeo — which many in Kitimat may know better from their former name PTI Group — have announced they’ve locked in a deal for 400 beds with LNG Canada LNG Canada says they need the 400 beds for a proposed stage of early work site preparation projects coming in the fall, and this contract is not in anticipation of a full-out construction phase. The company says they are “exploring the potential” to do some advance work, which calls for the need of the 400 beds. The contract with Civeo does not preclude the company from eventually developing what they call the “worker accomodation village,” or the essentially the company’s own work camp in the industrial area. This new contract with Civeo covers the next 15 months, says LNG Canada. They company noted that the Civeo contract will also cover the first part of construction of LNG Canada while their own camp is being built, if the company makes a positive final investment decision for it.
Civeo says their new building for Kitimat under this contract will be called the Sitka Lodge Civeo has already had the land zoned and approved in the Strawberry Meadows area for worker accomodations, which at a full build can reach to approximately 2,000 beds. The company and the town have negotiated density bonuses for the facility, which will provide money to an affordable housing fund managed by the District of Kitimat. “This contract is an important milestone for Civeo and our clients, and we are excited to establish a strong position in the Kitimat region to support work associated with this potential LNG project,” said Civeo President Brandley Dodson. We are proud to be part of a project with the potential to transform Canada’s natural resource sector and look forward to working with LNG Canada in the region.” On the business end, Civeo has increased their 2015 capital expenditure to reflect the Sitka Lodge, which bumps their expenditure guidance from $80 million to $90 million, while they expect most revenues to to be received in 2016.