Special Features - Rio Tinto Alcan Hot Metal July 2015

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Kitimat Smelter

Celebrates Milestone

STANDARDTERRACE

Rio Tinto Alcan’s first hot metal July 2015

724 Enterprise Avenue Kitimat BC • tel 250.632.2093 • fax 250.632.2523

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CONGRATULATESRio Tinto Alcan

on achieving this signi� cantmilestone.

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2 Rio Tinto Alcan Hot Metal July 2015

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 conclu-sion of all construction work, ex-pected 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 al-ways 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 work-force 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 concluding 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 opera-tional 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 run-ning 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.”

The modernized smelter will have a production rate of 420,000 tonnes a year, and is powered by the newer AP40 technology, re-placing the older söderberg pro-cess. Rio Tinto Alcan says that $684 million was spent through the northern BC region and $487 in the Vancouver area.

Deputy Haisla Chief Council-lor Taylor Cross, representing his council, congratulated the compa-ny on their milestone and pointed to the need for further collabora-tion with RTA.

Through construction he said the Haisla unemployment went from around 65 per cent down to approximately five.

“Every Haisla Nation member that wanted to work was working,” he said.

The Haisla and the company have a legacy agreement, and Cross said the need continues to have their members in work.

“This project is coming to an end so our un-employment rate is going up again,” he said, in calling for the continuation of their ongoing rela-tionship.

Kitimat Mayor Phil Germuth said the modern-ization will provide economic certainty for a num-ber of decades and that the project has provided the community with valuable knowledge.

“As a result...Kitimat has current experience on the construction of a large industrial project within its boundaries,” he said through a media release.

In another statement, the Kitimat Economic Development Authority says the start up of RTA’s modernized smelter is a “strong signal to other po-tential investors that Kitimat and the region is now ready for another mega project.”

At its peak the project was employing approx-imately 3,500 people.

RTA marks historic milestone

Rio Tinto Alcan Hot Metal July 2015 3

View of the Rio Tinto Alcan smelter July 2015.

Michel Charron,KMP managing director

Table of ContentsRTA marks historic milestone .......................................3A gathering place ...........................................................4A message from Premier Christy Clark ........................5Smelter core of Kitimat history .....................................5A message from Kitimat Mayor Phil Germuth .............8Unions working together ...............................................9A message from Terrace Mayor Carol Leclerc ............9How to re-train the workforce .......................................9Safety is a task that everyone shares .........................10A message from Haisla Deputy ChiefCouncillor Taylor Cross ................................................10AP40 is the new standard ............................................11A message from MLA Robin Austin ............................11Floating beds come to KMP ........................................12The farewell to the Delta Spirit ....................................13Boat accomodation is Kitimat history ........................13Future of the camp .......................................................13Emissions possible: taking emissions down .............14Sim-ply high-tech training techniques .......................19The history of getting to the starting line ...................20Kitimat thrives through construction boom ...............21Airport gets lift from KMP activity ..............................22Keeping benefits localized ..........................................23KMP legacy includes gift of land ................................25What’s next for the old site? ........................................26What else is RTA up to these days? ............................27When construction becomes operation .....................29

Cover page photo provided by Rio Tinto Alcan

Produced by the Kitimat Northern Sentinel and The Terrace Standard


Above, representatives pose with the smelter’s � rst ingots. Below, Hereditary Chief Sammy Robinson at a special blessing of his totem pole, which will stand in Henning Hall at the smelter site. Inset, Gaby Poirier and Unifor 2301 President Sean O’Driscoll wheel the ingots in to a special celebration at the site.

A gathering placeThe Vice President for Business De-

velopment and Strategic Projects for Rio Tinto Paul Henning re� ected how big the job of modernization was which wasn’t as apparent to him when the company gave the go-ahead in 2011.

Henning remembered the announce-ment in 2011 and had then thought that getting to board approval was the real goal and objective.

“Boy was I wrong,” he said.He repeated advice he was given at

an earlier time when he and the company were in an excited rush to get the project going.

He was told that these projects will take time, up to 10 years to get complet-ed.

“Boy did we show him!” he told people gathered in Henning Hall July 7. The project, he boasts, only took nine years.

Henning re� ected on the role of the site’s cafeteria, named for him, which is the � rst time there has been a cafeteria space at the plant.

“This is not my house, this is actu-ally yours,” he said, talking to the facil-ity’s purpose.

“This facility is about bringing peo-

ple together, this facility is a gathering place. It is a place where everybody’s welcome. It’s not about organization, it’s not about hierarchy. It’s about employ-ees, people, visitors and our friends com-ing to a gathering place where we share, we learn, and we’re at home.”

Paul Henning

Invited guests, including Kitimat Councillor Robert Gof� net at right, sign their names on the modernized smelter’s � rst new ingots.

Every morning in northern and rural British Columbia, thousands of men and women get up, lace their boots, and go to work in the natural resource sector. Since before British Columbia became a province, these jobs have sustained en-tire communities, kept fami-lies together, and provided a great living.

While natural resources are BC’s oldest industry, they too must change and adapt with the times. The Kitimat Modernization Project is the latest example of the innova-tion that defines BC’s continu-ing success. One of the largest construction projects in BC’s history, the new smelter is more environ-mentally friendly, and ensures jobs will remain in Kitimat and nearby communities.

BC’s growing, diverse economy with diverse markets is thriving be-cause companies like Rio Tinto Alcan continue to make investments in our future.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, visited Kitimat in 1954 for Alcan’s first metal pour. While no one from the monarchy appeared for this latest pour, the aluminum industry has proven it’s importance over six decades. Above right, an early Kitimat worker gets cozy with a bear.

The early townsite of Kitimat being cleared in the 1950s.

Smelter core of Kitimat history

A message from Premier Christy Clark

All this talk of milestones gives a great chance to reflect back on a number of other milestones.

Rio Tinto Alcan, or going further back just Alcan, has had an immense volume of history follow it through its time.

Just see the photos below when real royalty touched down in Kitimat — before roads were even what they are today —to witness Alcan’s first hot metal in 1954.

As a community we of course owe our existence to Alcan, who hired the planners to create this municipality, complete with greenspaces and walkways.

In more modern history, Alcan was pur-chased by Rio Tinto, forming the company we know today, Rio Tinto Alcan. All that happened in 2007.

The sale was a $38.1 billion exchange,

a truly massive investment.In September 2014 Rio Tinto Alcan

marked the celebration of 60 years of op-erations in Kitimat.

For an industry which formed the better part of a century before, it was a remarkable milestone to note that not only were they still here producing, but they were setting up for another 60 years through moderniza-tion.

Cut to today, and the company is re-flecting on the milestone of committing to Kitimat Modernization Project in 2011.

That decision in 2011 kickstarted an economic boom for the region, and now in 2015 the community watches as the finish-ing touches are put in to place on the con-struction leading to an eventual steady-state.

A lot happens in 60 years.


How much is that?$4.8 billion...

• 320 Sam Lindsay Memorial Pool renovations• 8 Sea-To-Sky highway improvements• 2.8 2010 Vancouver Olympics• 114.3 million subscriptions to the Northern Sentinel

means ...

Rio Tinto Alcan’s price total for modernization.


From this...

1954

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1352 Alexander Avenue, Kitimat, BC l tel. 250-639-9199 l www.kvic.ca

CongratulationsRio Tinto!

Kitimat Valley Institute is proud to have supported our partner Rio Tinto with

training and employment opportunities in reaching this milestone.


2015

RTA Project Director Michel Charron walks past a long row of valves in the smelter’s gas treatment plant.

A message from Kitimat Mayor Phil Germuth

The excitement which surrounds the Kitimat Modernization Project is palpable.

Kitimat went from economic uncertain-ty to seeing a bright future for at least another 60 years.

The benefits of the project have extended beyond the smelter construction and can be seen through the ap-pearance of developers looking to build new businesses and housing, while long-term homeowners as well are seeking to fix up their homes, knowing that now they will be able to see a return on their investments.

The experience of this project has been an invaluable learning experience for myself and the entirety of Kiti-mat council.

Ultimately it can be said that there is a level of hope and confidence in the community which is, in large part, thanks to the Rio Tinto Alcan modernization project, which put thousands of people to work and invested mil-lions into local economies.

With their first pour done and with them preparing for the first shipment from their modernized smelter, we congratulate them on their milestone and look forward to a continuing relationship for decades to come.

CONGRATULATIONS

We appreciate yourcontributions to our community and

wishing you continued success in the future

Rio Tinto Alcanon reaching

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How to re-train the workforceWith upwards of 1,000 operations

workers, there’s a challenge in front of the company to get its entire operations force ready to use new equipment.

By the start of July the company says about half of the training require-ments have been completed. It’s a pro-cess that has to be organized carefully as the old potlines continue production as the new ones get energized.

Poirier says there are two compo-nents to the training regime: the theory and the practical.

The theory is the ‘easy’ part. Through classrooms and workshops with vendors and other experts, em-

ployees were given lessons in how the new smelter operates.

Employees were presented with what the standard operating proce-dures (SOP) are for the new technolo-gies, and people from other smelters were brought in too.

Theory training only goes so far though. You need workers who have experience on the equipment. So how do you give employees that hands-on experience in a smelter without that equipment yet turned on?

You send them away.“For example people from the

baking furnace spent three weeks in

Australia...to run the baking furnace,” said Poirier.

As well, another 40 people were sent to the Middle East to run cranes in the smelter in Sohar.

Training is structured so that those trained on the machines will share that training with the employees back home in Kitimat too.

It’s a real collaborative effort, says Poirier.

“The level of ownership is amaz-ing. It’s their smelter,” he said.

In all approximately 120 employ-ees were sent overseas on the training trips.

It was a pleasure for Terrace City Council to cel-ebrate RTA’s First Hot Pour event, July 2015.

The first hot pour sym-bolizes eco-nomic stability for the north-west for gener-ations to come.

With the northwest ex-periencing highs and lows in resource in-dustries, the near completion of the Kitimat Modernization Project guarantees good pay-ing jobs, opportunities for the service indus-try and a good corporate neighbour for our northern communities.

People follow work. The new, modern aluminum facility ensures people in the northwest have stable work, which helps sta-bilize our communities.

The modernized facility also ensures em-ployees have a safe work environment and employees can return home to their fami-lies following their shifts. The spinoff to the service industry guarantees those businesses and the families they support gain the benefit of providing service to a long term stable cus-tomer. Having a good corporate neighbour means supporting communities groups and events as well as offering summer jobs for our local students, opportunities for appren-tices and being a cornerstone in our north-west communities.

A message from Terrace Mayor Carol Leclerc

Working togetherA coalition of trade unions in their final quarterly meeting before the end of modernization. With 17 participating unions working under the KMP Project Labour Agreement, the group met regularly to discuss what was working and what needed improvement as the project moved forward.

KMP unions work collaborativelyThrough the course of

the Kitimat Modernization Project project there was one ongoing challenge to the whole operation: who’d build the thing?

At its peak KMP was around 3,500 people, but through the course of peo-ple coming and going the project would see closer to 10,000 workers crossing the gates.

A total combined workforce of 10,000 is quite substantial, to put it mildly.

To plan for that a Proj-ect Labour Agreement was put together in the early days of project planning, around 2008, which was hashed out over the course of four days between gen-eral contractor Bechtel and Rio Tinto Alcan.

The agreement set out a number of requirements,

from First Nations employ-ment to local business en-gagement and even setting goals for the number of lo-cal and Canadian workers on the project.

“It’s really unprec-edented,” said Mark Olson, who Chaired the coalition of 16 unions who worked under the agreement. “Bechtel came forward to the building trade unions...we put the coalition togeth-er of unions, we got in the same room in 2008 and af-ter four days with Bechtel and the unions working to-

gether we accomplished a tremendous project labour agreement.”

“It’s well beyond just wages and benefits and working conditions,” he added. “It covered all those important principles.”

Andrew Czornohalan, acting project director for KMP, said the quarterly meetings of the union co-alition was an important part of looking at the big picture of managing the project.

“It’s about proactively managing and defining

strategy such that we can ensure we have a labour force that’s engaged, that’s happy, and that are produc-tive,” he said.

Dan Haven, the site manager for Bechtel, said the meetings allowed them to think about such things as shift rotations and hours of work.

“Not everything gets passed but at least it gives a venue to discuss it or come back and have other discus-sions later,” said Haven.

Planning for the proj-ect was a big aspect to the work, and Olson says this is the first project where Bechtel could get ahead of a project and do all the en-gineering work prior to the construction start, and the coalition meetings was a big part in helping them get that work accomplished.

Continued on page 22

“We put the coalition together of unions, we got in the same room in

2008 and after four days with Bechtel and the unions working together we accomplished a tremendous project

labour agreement.”


Safety is a task that everyone shares

In a board room in the Rio Tinto Al-can office building overlooking the smelt-er site, BC Operations’ General Manager Gaby Poirier looks like he’d be more comfortable out in the potrooms than in-side the office.

Instead of a business-formal outfit he’s still wearing his Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), from him being out do-ing Leadership in Action.

LIA is a two-year program at RTA which is the bridge between employees and the managers.

It’s also a key way the company main-tains its culture of safety, and by extension its safety record.

The company has marked millions of work hours without a work-loss injury.

For a project which involved thousands of people, it’s quite an accomplishment.

“I was saying to all employees the last three years if you look at all of Rio Tinto Alcan...we were the site most at risk in terms of safety. And we still are because we’re starting up,” said Poirier.

Leadership in Action provides the dialogue to improve themselves.

“Everybody from me to the supervi-sor, all management, are going on the floor every day to talk about safety, to see how our team is working, but also to listen...about what we can do better,” said Poirier. “To bring the safety level to where they [employees] did, it takes a strong leader-ship and a strong belief that we could do that project safely.”

So in what ways is the project chal-lenging on the safety front? Well, more than 3,000 workers on site can do it, plus the constant rotation of people as well.

Poirier notes that at times you may need brick masons, and later electricians, and so on. That constant rotation means new people all the time.

Poirier, in bright orange PPE, points to the wording stitched on his chest; Zero Harm. He makes a point of saying it’s printed over the heart.

“It’s part of the mindsight,” he said.“The biggest [risk] right now is to put

production before safety, because you’re excited. But this is the last thing you [want] to do,” he said.

The operations crew must remain effi-cient and follow the plans to ensure things are done safely, he said.

For Poirier to commit to employee safety is also a means to set an example. If he didn’t practice what he preached then why would anyone else?

“What you say you’re going to do, do it.”

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Congratulations to Rio Tinto on this milestone of first pour. KMP was good for the Haisla Na-tion in regards to employment, training, experience and con-tracts.

As full operation nears, the challenge will be getting our members full time employment for the life of the smelter.

A message from Haisla DeputyChief Councillor Taylor Cross


AP40 is the new standardThe company Alumini-

um Pechiney originally de-veloped what is known as the AP technology.

In 2004 then-Alcan purchased the company, and now-Rio Tinto Alcan will be deploying the AP40 technology in their mod-ernized smelter.

There’s a lot of trade secrets behind the technol-ogy which is replacing the

original söderberg process, but Rio Tinto Alcan does note in company docu-ments that the improve-ments to health, safety and the environment through AP40 is world-class, which also, to the benefit of RTA, comes at a lower cost.

Among the key ben-efits of AP technology is that it is extremely energy efficient, and comes with

modern digital monitors and computer control sys-tems.

AP technology pro-vides the lowest green-house gas emissions in alu-minum production in the world as well, according to a 2003 survey.

Basically when the company talks about the high level of recycling and emission reductions (page

14), it comes primarily through AP processes.

“The new smelter will be equipped with the most modern AP pre-bake tech-nology,” reads company

material on AP. “The mod-ernization will consist of up to 384 pots housed in four buildings, increasing Kitimat’s current produc-tion capacity to 420,000

tonnes per year.The pots will operate

at an optimum amperage of 405 kA; increasing overall operating efficiency con-siderably.”

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Congratulations Rio Tinto Alcan

on the first pour of your Modernization Project

Along with many other in-vited guests, RTA managers and Lo-cal 2301 workers I was delighted to at-tend the auspicious milestone of the new smelter’s first hot metal.

It has been a long journey to get to this point with multiple challenges to overcome.

I want to congratulate all those involved over the last many years who have played a role in the modernization project. It is terrific for not only Kitimat, but the whole Northwest to see this major capital project nearing com-pletion.

It will guarantee a major source of family supporting jobs for a couple more generations and shows a level of support for the North-west economy that bodes well for the future.

A message from MLA Robin Austin

With the AP40 technology put in to use at the modernized smelter it helps increase material recycling and lowers emissions.


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Derick Stinson, Plant Manager221 Enterprise Avenue Kitimat BC V8C 2C8

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Congratulations

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Another MilestoneReached!

tel 250-632-4831 • Kitimat BC

For reaching another milestoneand getting another step

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CongratulationsRio Tinto Alcan.

Floating beds come to KMPFor just one afternoon

in April 2014, the scores of people � lling the lobby of the Delta Spirit Lodge, a re-� tted Estonian ferry to serve as housing for contract workers, were not workers themselves but community stakeholders and business people, on hand for the of� cial bless-ing and opening of the ship.

The vessel, which was able to house about 600

people, was already opened to its guests, people located temporarily in Kitimat for the Kitimat Modernization Project.

Four-hundred-fi f ty beds were committed, said Bridgemans Services’ partner Brian Grange, who was in attendance for the opening on April 24, 2014.

Bridgemans and the Haisla partnered to bring the ship to Kitimat.

The ship traveled for

45 days to get to the north coast and hit rough weather in the English Channel and near San Francisco before arrival.

It’s a 10-deck ship, 580 feet long and 100 feet wide. By comparison the Northern Expedition ship of BC Ferries, which ser-vices Prince Rupert to Port Hardy, and to Haida Gwaii, is 507 feet long.

- Files from Northern Sentinel, April 2014


Nathan Cullen,MP, Skeena-Bulkley Valley

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T: (250) 615-5339TF: (888) [email protected]

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Robin Austin,MLA, Skeena

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Congratulations to Rio Tinto Alcan, Haisla Nation, community of Kitimat,

unions and contractors for a job well done!

We look forward to continuing to work

together to build the economies of

Kitimat and the Northwest.

A worker checks an electrical system at the modernization work site.

The Delta Spirit ship was just the latest in a history of the aluminum company using ships to house workers.

Back in the 1950s the Delta King paddle-wheeler was the iconic � oating accomodation during the original smelter build.

As Kitimat historian Walter Thorne wrote for a North-ern Sentinel It’s Our Heritage column, Kitimat’s iconic Delta King was a ship with a story to tell.

A selection from his October 2012 column:“Even though it rested on our shores for a scant seven

years, it was present for some of the most important days of our history.

The Delta King, a 285 foot (87 meter) vessel, was parked on shore at Hospital Beach for the better part of the 1950s, right through the start-up of the Alcan/Kemano project.

The Delta King arrived here on May 8, 1952 after a three week journey, under tow from San Francisco. The 30 year old veteran riverboat had been stripped of its paddle

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Yet another spectacularmilestone achieved.

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To Rio Tinto Alcanon this milestone.

Future of the campRio Tinto Alcan’s

work camp for modern-ization may see more life under future projects.

Kevin Dobbin said the ATCO trailers are leased so it will be up to that company to decide where they will go once the project closes out.

That being the case, he said there have been

thoughts to re-using the trailers in other projects in the area, and even po-tentially using the exist-ing camp site for other possible projects.

“It could be. I wouldn’t rule it out, but again it’s timing for the other projects,” he said, also noting it’d be a deci-sion by ATCO as well.

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The farewell to the Delta SpiritThe Delta Spirit ship embarked

on its next journey after � oating away down the Douglas Channel, from Kit-imat in May.

The departure of the Delta Spirit Lodge, Rio Tinto Alcan’s � oating worker accommodation vessel, was said to be a sign of the project’s rapid-

ly approaching conclusion, company spokesperson Kevin Dobbin said in May.

“We’ve started our transition, we’ve peaked around 3,200 - 3,400 people and now we’re starting a pretty quick transition, close-out,” said Dob-bin earlier in the year.

The Delta Spirit ship itself — its actual of� cial name is the Sija Festi-val — was contracted for housing un-til the end of March, with a one month extension requested by Rio Tinto Al-can.

The ship is owned by Bridgeman Services.

Continued on page 29

Emissions possible: taking emissions downRio Tinto Alcan is

following the three Rs when it comes to how clean they’re going to run the new smelter.

Now that they’re operating on new AP40 technology, the com-pany can recycle the process’ by-products much more efficiently which will reduce al-most all of their emis-sions, in some cases quite dramatically.

Polycyclic Aro-matic Hydrocarbons (PAH) will see the largest single drop from 212 tonnes a year down to three, a 98 per cent reduction.

Particulates will go down by 80 per cent, which includes things like dust.

Fluorides will drop 72 per cent, from 600 to 168 tonnes a year.

Greenhouse gases too will go down 36 per cent, from nearly 1.4 million tonnes a year to just under 900,000 tonnes a year.

The only emission

from the smelter which will rise is sulphur di-oxide which will in-crease 56 per cent.

Reducing their overall emissions by nearly 50 per cent comes from a com-bination of their gas treatment centre and their fume treatment centre.

While their older technology could re-cycle byproducts to a degree, the AP40 makes it far more man-ageable.

“The pots are way more efficient, way better control than the old ones,” said Poirier.

Basically every-thing in their produc-tion line is part of a large recycling loop.

Carbon from the spent anodes is broken down and used to make new anodes.

Emissions treated in the gas treatment centre also gets re-

turned to the produc-tion cycle, which keeps it from being released in the air.

“The technology enables us to be a bet-ter operator.”

As for the sulphur dioxide increase? That aspect of the smelter is under an appeal, but the company, through its SO

2 Technical

Assessment Report

(STAR), says that SO2

can be safely emitted by the air with limited risks to water, soils, vegetation and human health.

They say the

height, velocity and heat of the SO

2 will af-

fect the dispersment of the emission and will add one per cent in health impact risk for people in Kitimat.

A component in Rio Tinto Alcan’s gas treatment centre.

“Thetechnology enables us

to be a better operator.”

WE’RE PROUD TO BE A PART OF YOUR SUCCESS.

Congratulations, Rio Tinto Alcan!

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On the way towards Rio Tinto Alcan’s Kitimat Modernization Project journey they have pushed ahead efforts to get em-ployees trained for operations.

One of the more interesting aspects of work site training — which is not a phrase that typically elicits excitement — is a vir-tual crane simulator at the Learning Cen-tre at Roy Wilcox that mixes the safety of video games with a near-total replica of the new smelter’s potline cranes.

On first glance it looks like a computer game. In front of the operator’s chair, on the other side of replica bars — to copy the look of the real thing — is a large screen. An image is transmitted via a projector in the floor behind.

On the other side of the simulator is a bank of computers, making sure each ac-tion by the operator creates an entirely re-alistic reaction on screen.

The screen itself shows a 3D rendered world inside an aluminum smelter’s pot room. The operator does everything they’d do in true life, of course making sure to avoid all the expected dangers.

There are animated people and vehi-cles rendered on screen.

As the machine activates the room — the room inside Roy Wilcox — fills with the sounds of a potroom, including the noises of vehicles beeping loudly in re-verse gear.

A worker on the floor — the fictional 3D floor — stares up at you, absent-mind-edly tapping his palm with a wrench.

More sound, this time like a jackham-mer as the crane breaks through the a mol-ten crust.

“It’s a very high tech simulator be-cause when you sit in it, it’s a replication of exactly the same cab of a real crane that we’re commissioning as we speak,” said Gaby Poirier, General Manager of BC Op-erations.

He said a cap with a sensor will even move the display as the user moves their head.

Despite its arcade-like experience it’s still a challenging course.

Trainees take nearly 40 hours on the sim before moving to on-site training.

In the non-modernized Rio Tinto Al-can smelter, crane operators didn’t get the luxury of a simulator; straight to the real thing.

The cranes themselves, and the simu-lator, are made by ECL, which is actually a Rio Tinto owned company.

Poirier says the training is very effec-tive and some operators have said the real cranes have even been more forgiving than the simulator is.

One of the more amusing differ-ences of the new crane system ver-sus the old is the fact that all the con-trols are effectively reversed from howthey used to be.

Operators tend to overcome that ob-stacle fairly quickly.

The company will run all their opera-tors through the simulator and Poirier says

there are over 200 persons who need the training.

As for the future of this simulator, the company will hang on to it in Kitimat how-ever it won’t always reside in the Roy Wil-cox Learning Centre.

The company has held a lease on the building for approximately two years but the company says it will hold on to the for-mer elementary school only for the life of the project.

Once RTA gets their smelter back to

what they call steady-state they’ll begin phasing out use of the building.

The building’s been fully used so far. A lot of general training takes place on the school grounds as well as some trades training and electrical, says Poirier.

The simulator could find itself at the RTA site in the future once Roy Wilcox, for RTA’s purposes, closes down.

“You don’t need a big facility like [Roy Wilcox] to train people in a steady-state smelter,” said Poirier.

Sim-ply high-tech training techniques

Rio Tinto Alcan re-purposed a former Kitimat elementary school to provide high-tech training for its workforce which would be using updated technologies on the potlines in the modernized smelter.

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Malcolm Baxter, December 7, 2011, Northern Sentinel

It has been a long a winding road to last Thursday’s announce-ment.

So forgive me if I shorthand how we got here.

How long that road is de-pends on what you pick as the starting point.

For some it would be the Ke-mano Completion Project plan of the late 1980s - that crashed when the NDP provincial government of Mike Harcourt, egged on by Gordon Campbell, then leader of the Liberal opposition, slammed the door on KCP.

But for most it would likely be the summer of 1997 when the province and Alcan announced they had reached a compensation agreement for that cancellation.

Then NDP premier Glen Clark proclaimed to a packed Riverlodge Community Room that they were announcing a new smelter and the creation of 2,000 jobs.

The euphoria was short-lived, however.

Following Clark in the speak-ing order, Alcan CEO Jacques Bougie quickly tossed a wet blan-ket over the event by stating cat-egorically that they were not an-nouncing a new smelter.

And cautioned people against rushing out and building new shopping centres and apartment buildings in anticipation of the good times rolling.

While the deal that had been struck offered incentives for Al-can to go ahead with a smelter project here, whether that hap-pened would depend on market conditions.

In an interview after the event, Bougie told the Northern Sentinel that 2003-2004 was like-ly the optimum time span to take advantage of the deal. That win-dow came and went and by then Alcan and the city were deep into the power sales war.

Slow forward - nothing moved quickly on this � le - to August 2006.

Having won the � rst couple of rounds in the court battle and with the city going to appeal its defeat in the BC Supreme Court, Alcan announced in August of 2006 that it would be going ahead with a $2 billion modernization of the smelter which would produce around 400,000 tonnes of alumi-num a year, nearly double its then production.

The company said construc-tion could begin late 2007 or ear-ly 2008, but that was dependent on meeting three conditions: a

new power sales contract with BC Hydro, a long-term contract with the union, and environmental per-mitting.

Then it was up to the board to okay the expenditure.

All three conditions were eventually met.

In March 2007 Chief Jus-tice Brenner of the Appeal Court found against Kitimat, saying Al-can could sell as much power as it wanted, anytime it wanted.

Four months later global gi-ant Rio Tinto bought Alcan with the deal being � nalized in Octo-ber of that year.

In March 2008 RTA CEO Tom Albanese came to town and told the Northern Sentinel he was “excited” by the smelter modern-ization project.

But he indicated a longer time frame for getting it before the board of directors for approval.

While investing in KMP made “a lot of sense”, Albanese added, “anything that makes sense needs to also be well engineered. It’s just good business to make sure that rigour is in play.”

That meant a lot of engineer-ing work had to be done over the next few months as well as updat-ing to take into account changes in construction costs, for example.

As for a timetable for mod-

ernization, Albanese indicated he expected the project to go before the board “later this year”

Then the recession hit.By the end of the year Rio

Tinto was announcing job and spending cuts and some KMP contractors being told their ser-vices are no longer required.

However, Paul Henning still offered assurances that the overall goal remained the same: “com-pletion of the rebuild.”

And events bore him out, even if at a somewhat sedate pace.

A few hundred million here, a few hundred million there and KMP kept inching forward, with acceleration this year to the ex-tent that RTA was spending the equivalent of $1 million a day on the project.

And so we arrived at last Thursday when, after months of pointing to its smelters in Kiti-mat and Quebec as the jewels in its aluminum crown, RTA an-nounced the � nal and full approv-al of KMP.

It’s been a long road indeed.

Rio Tinto Alcan ‘breaks ground’ with the formal announcement that they’d be modernizing their Kitimat aluminum smelter. Rio Tinto Alcan photo

The history of getting to the starting line

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Kitimat thrives through construction boomAs the world endured the

2008 recession, Kitimat was deal-ing with its own ghosts; a shut-tered pulp and paper mill, which itself followed years after the loss of the Methanex plant.

The hope was a modernized aluminum smelter to kickstart the local economy, a project which it-self was in a form of limbo, until November 2011 when the com-pany’s board of directors formally approved the project.

The news was a welcome breath on the community’s smol-dering economy, and kickstarted a four-year boom.

“There’s no doubt there was a lot of depression in the town,” said Kitimat Mayor Phil Ger-muth. “When RTA announced their modernization...it made a huge difference in the town and you can really see that and people see some hope in the community.”

In the community he began seeing old houses getting fixed up, and the town being busier with the influx of workers to con-struct the plant.

“We learned a lot, of course, from the RTA modernization project, things that will apply to future camps,” he said.

Kitimat naturally had grow-ing pains from the multi-billion

dollar project.Living out allowances, which

gave workers a stipend if they chose to live off site, created a housing crunch in the community.

“Housing was the biggest [lesson] we learned. What an im-pact it had when there were the living out allowances, and what an impact that had of course on our rental situation. We went from having the highest vacancy rate in the province to very quickly hav-ing one of the lowest rates in the whole province,” said Germuth.

As well, health services at the RTA camp were limited at the start, which meant workers with-out a local family doctor would use the town’s emergency room for medical issues, emergency or not.

RTA addressed both of those issues, later removing the living out allowance incentive, and tak-ing on more expansive health ser-vices at the camp which allowed only those with an actual emer-gency to use the Kitimat ER.

“That made a huge differ-ence, they eliminated the problem very quickly.”

Of course a sudden boom in economic activity was also thanks to the fledgling LNG industry in Kitimat with other companies

embarking on early works. But it was the KMP project which pro-vided the bulk of activity.

With the modernization con-struction rapidly concluding, Ger-muth said he sees the benefits not only in Kitimat but with the mon-

ey spent across all of the Pacific northwest.

And he’s looking forward to embarking on a process to de-velop lands recently gifted to the District of Kitimat from RTA. (See page 25 for more on that.)

As for looking ahead, Ger-muth says that for Kitimat the modernization project means a solid foundation for the commu-nity.

“[It’s] very good to have that certainty for the next 60 years.”

Kitimat Mayor Phil Germuth speaks at the first pour special event held in Henning Hall at the RTA site.

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Continued from page 9As a coalition they’ve faced some significant challeng-

es for a project its size.The inclusion of as many Canadian workers is among

those challenges. Remember the 10,000 workers number? Collecting that many trades from across Canada was no small feat.

“Close to 10,000 construction craft workers [came] through the site,” said Olson. “And I believe at its peak there were only three per cent temporary foreign workers.”

On average for the whole project there was only one per cent.

Having 99 per cent Cana-dian workers on a project this large is “unprecedented.”

Give or take, he said 32 per cent of the workforce was local (Kitimat, Kitamaat Vil-lage and Terrace), 57 per cent from the rest of BC and 11 per cent from Canada-wide.

It was a safe project too.Olson says that out of 10,000 workers, there were only

13 lost-time injuries in the entire project to now.“Out of 10,000? Incredible.”Czornohalan also points to WorkSafeBC numbers

showing hundreds of thousands of lost-time injuries re-ported province wide every year, to emphasize the safety record of KMP.

With the project nearing the end of its life and with unions looking ahead to the next big thing they see KMP as a starting point to having an experienced workforce.

“That’s where KMP has been important, working with BC building trades to build a knowledge base,” said Czor-nohalan. “So we leave the community, we leave BC with a greater capacity to handle the next mega project.”

Olson said he hopes to see KMP as the launch pad for other projects where those 10,000 people can find work next.

Czornohalan adds, “We’ve demonstrated that the northwest can not only support mega projects, it’s ready to house mega projects, and it’s willing to house mega proj-ects.

“We’ve proved to the world we can handle it.”Continued on page 26

Joining in the celebrations...

to Rio Tinto Alcan on achieving this

prodigious milestone!

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0

Airport gets lift from KMP activityPerhaps one of the

most direct indicators of economic activity is how a local airport fares.

The Kitimat-Terrace Regional Airport has seen a real spike of passengers passing through it over the past few years, and the modernization project is one of the leading draws for the users.

In September 2013, traffic was up 30 per cent over the year before.

The airport manager Carman Hendry told Black Press at the time that he attributed the increase to a quickened pace of work at the modernization proj-ect, with help too from the Northwest Transmission Line work.

Fast forward to May 2014 and the record growth of the airport continued.

“It’s getting hard to be-lieve the numbers. People in the [airport services] in-

dustry we speak to are real-ly wondering,” said Hendry in the 2014 Terrace Stan-dard article.

A concerted effort to finish Rio Tinto Alcan’s Kitimat smelter rebuilding project and continued work by companies connected with the region’s potential liquefied natural gas indus-try were said to be at the core of the passenger traffic growth.

With the modernization rapidly concluding, the pas-senger numbers are begin-ning to drop a bit, which emphasizes how influential the project was to the air-port’s growth.

The regional airport saw a lot of growth, thanks in no small part to the KMP project in Kitimat.File photo

“It’s getting hard to

believe the numbers.”

Unions

“We’ve proved to the world we can

handle it.”


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Keeping benefits localizedThe local work-

force on modernization —that is people from Kitimat, Kitamaat Vil-lage and Terrace — peaked at around 1,200 people last September.

Tapping local ex-pertise and skills was a priority for the com-pany which looked at ways to spend as much of their $4.8 billion as they could on the area.

It was a goal to not let local people feel left out.

“We’ve heard lots of stories where big projects come in and they come in with big contracts and the local businesses are left out on the side,” said Kevin Dobbin, Manager of External Relations. “We wanted to make sure that didn’t happen here.

“We’ve been sell-ing this project as an economic stimulus for the region for many years...we wanted to

walk the walk.”The thing that

could limit local busi-nesses from participat-ing in the project was the typical scope of a contract for a mega project.

Terms of condi-tions on the project ran about 800 pages, noted Dobbin.

“For a local busi-ness it’s pretty difficult to move through that if you don’t have a legal team,” he said, saying they had lawyers short-en it but even that only got it cut down a whole eight pages.

The company went ahead with ‘turn page sessions’ where they had representatives go through the documents page by page so local business people could understand all the re-quirements.

The company also set priority zones for drawing workers. Pri-ority Area 1 was Kiti-

mat, Terrace and Kita-maat Village.

Area 2 was the northwest of BC and the third was the prov-ince as a whole.

After they exhaust-ed the worker supply from those they’d look at outside the area.

Many workers were trained locally through an RTA de-signed training pro-gram run through the Kitimat Valley Institute as well.

RTA created a training template for the jobs they needed in the contracts — brick layers, electricians, etc. — and Dobbin says it was very suc-cessful. One training program which had 120 students saw the entire class picked up by a contractor at the end, he said.

He said the compa-ny was able to directly spend $1.2 billion in British Columbia.

Rio Tinto Alcan went to lengths to keep people in our communities employed through the construction phase.

From here RTA plans to share their knowledge.

With a number of proponents for other mega projects knock-ing on Kitimat’s door,

Dobbin says they’ve talked to those propo-nents and shared their knowledge.

Those projects will of course also benefit from the large num-

ber of trained workers who are now finishing up the construction at KMP.

Also to note, the Northern Development Initiative Trust saw the

benefit of RTA’s train-ing program and adapt-ed it regionally, run-ning a series of ‘boot camps’ for businesses to tap in to Northwest opportunities.



• •

At a taxpayer friendly cost of $10 a large plot of land near Minette Bay has become District of Kitimat property.

The land, formerly Rio Tinto Alcan’s before the of-fer to gift it, provides the community with true, publicly owned waterfront.

Rio Tinto Alcan announced in an open letter Novem-ber 12 that they were gifting the 156 acres of waterfront to the District of Kitimat.

The land is on the western side of the Kitimat Arm, at Minette Bay.

In the open letter General Manager of BC Operations Gaby Poirier said that as RTA looks to having new neigh-bours at the smelter site, “it is important now, more than ever, to ensure the people of Kitimat continue to have di-rect ocean access.”

The site is just south of Minette Bay Lodge.Mayor-at-the-time Joanne Monaghan said conversa-

tions about receiving land from Rio Tinto Alcan had been ongoing for approximately two years, and efforts really tied in to RTA’s past temporary closure of Hospital Beach due to their smelter construction.

Monaghan had said no firm plans have been estab-lished as to what the District will do with that land now that it’s in their hands.

Current Mayor Phil Germuth says a public process will begin soon to talk about what to do with the land.

In August last year, Vice-president of Business Development and Strategic Projects Paul Henning had hinted that land in Minette Bay could serve as a potential replacement if Hospital Beach had to be closed again in the future.

“We think that from a recreational perspective it could be a nice balance,” Henning told the Sentinel in August 2014.

Future construction at RTA’s wharf could mean more short-term closures at Hospital Beach due to heavy indus-

trial traffic, Henning had also said at the time, and the com-pany wanted to find a “long term” solution.”

Surrounding the 156 acres, designated as DL 471, is another District of Kitimat-owned parcel just to the south along the water, with the remainder being privately owned lands, including two Rio Tinto Alcan parcels directly above DL 471.

Poirier said that the company had been working with the District for some time now and understood the public’s

interest in having access to the ocean.Poirier said that with the possibility of new industrial

developments coming, now was the best time to make the offer of waterfront.

He said there are still details to be worked out with the District as to the potential for opening up access to the land but the land is for Kitimat’s full use without restrictions as long as it’s used for public access and the community good, the company says.

KMP legacy includes gift of land

Some Rio Tinto Alcan land has been gifted to the District of Kitimat on Minette Bay, which the town hopes to develop into recreation spaces for residents.

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What’s next for the old site?The modernization will leave some

of the smelter’s older buildings un-used. So what are the plans?

“Warehousing could be one of them,” said BC Operations General Maanger Gaby Poirier. “Potential other businesses could be one of them also, because we

have many local contractors that we’ll need with the new smelter to do anode stem repairs and potlining, and things like that.”

Potline five is already shut down, and three and four are still running so they’ll have to be turned off before RTA decides

what to do with them.It will basically come down to the

business end.“It’s a business case,” said Poirier,

saying they’ll have to see if the buildings are even stable enough to stand for an-other five or ten years.

CONGRATULATIONSRio Tinto AlcanON THE FIRST POUR OF YOUR MODERNIZATION PROJECT

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Continued from page 22Meanwhile the lessons from KMP aren’t just

for those of the unions. Olson says the govern-ment has a lot to learn too for handling future projects.

“There are some lessons to be learned for the governments too because as great as this project is, if any of these LNGs go they’re even bigger,” he said. “So what do we need? We need the fed-eral and the provincial governments to step for-ward on the infrastructure front. We need airport expansion. Bechtel just can’t do it on their own, we can’t do it on our own. We need the govern-ment to step forward and commit to things like airport expansion and additional flight capacity, and on and on and on.”

Czornohalan said the pressures are clear look-ing at KMP as its own community of 2,000 or so people, with buses and charter flights.

“At a point in time we’re effectively running a small town,” he said.

The reward from KMP is that they’ve man-aged it to be a “benchmark” project.

“We have achieved outstanding performance, we’ve benchmarked in Rio Tinto, we’re one of Bechtel’s better performing and we’re definitely B.C.’s best performing mega project,” he said. “That has been partly fostered by the relationship in the coalition of unions. It’s been proven, it’s supported and more importantly endorsed by the coalition of unions.”

Olson adds that it’s important to note that the Kitimat project is the only project given a notice to proceed within the company during the 2008 recession.

Suffice it to say, all eyes were on the project in Kitimat and the people responsible for building it took the task to heart.

Unions

There are thoughts for what to do with the older buildings at the Rio Tinto Alcan site, but nothing has been set in stone.


Union Carpenters building Kitimat since the beginning

Congratulations

on reaching this incredible

milestone,Rio Tinto Alcan!

While the Kitimat Modernization Proj-ect takes up most people’s attention, it’s not the only project the company is dealing with.

By now the public comment period would have just closed for the planned ex-pansion of their Terminal A.

Rio Tinto Alcan last year entered an agreement with LNG Canada for the LNG company to use Terminal B, the former Eu-rocan wharf.

In anticipation of LNG Canada taking over that piece of land, RTA will have to expand their own wharf to meet capacity.

The expanded terminal won’t necessar-ily increase RTA’s export capacity, but will maintain it with LNG Canada taking on use of Terminal B.

Perhaps among the most important fac-tors of this project to the community is how it impacts water access, namely to Hospital Beach.

Manager of Media and External Re-lations Kevin Dobbin said there’s no long term plan for the beach closure although construction may result in temporary clo-sures.

But at completion the plan is the com-munity will still be able to use the facility.

“We don’t plan on closing the beach at all, long term. But during construction it might be”.

Dobbin said the company has worked

closely with the Haisla and the community in putting together their expansion plan, which includes a barge ramp and dredging in the water. They’ll have to dredge three or four metres to accommodate their ships.

General Manager of BC Operations for RTA Gaby Poirier says right now they use their Terminal B for shipping out their met-al but once Terminal A is extended that one terminal will serve the import of the raw material and metal export.

A view from Hospital Beach, looking towards where the expanded terminal will be once their permits are in place and construction takes place.

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wheel and steam engine. Al-though it was built for 400, it never housed more than 250 souls. The ship’s boiler and gener-

ator supplied heat and pow-er to the ship. At the time of the ship’s arrival in 1952, the Kitimat project was well into year two of construction

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When construction becomes operation

By mid-July, Rio Tinto Alcan was mak-ing good progress towards having all of their pots up and running.

On July 16 there were 17 pots, and ap-proximately two pots were going online ev-ery day, on the way towards running all 384.

“The toughest part is the last 25 per cent, because when you start to be around 75-80 per cent of your capacity, all the equipment around has to reach nameplate capacity,” said Poirier.

The way they’ve been doing it is they start a few pots, take a pause, then start some more, to make sure everything runs properly.

Bechtel remains the projects EPCM con-tractor; that is the Engineering, Procurment and Construction Manager. But they’re re-sponsibilities are quickly being tied up.

“The project will be declared totally fin-ished...after ramp up.”

“There’s a three or four month period we call the performance test,” said Poirier.

Bechtel is responsible for the first couple of stages of the testing, namely the mechani-cal completion and the practical completion.

Mechanical completion is essentially when a specific project is formally complet-ed, last screw put in, the final weld complete.

Practical completion involves the inspec-tion of those parts. Do the wires work the way they’re supposed to, is everything plugged in to the right place?

After that is a stabilization process that includes industrial completion. That’s when the equipment is put in to actual use.

Once all of those clearances pass, then the smelter transitions in to a steady-state.

“Steady-state will come three years after the first hot metal. In 2018 will be considered steady state,” said Poirier.

Gaby Poirier speaking about the features of the modernized Kitimat smelter.

“Steady-state will come three years after the

first hot metal. In 2018 it will be considered

steady-state.”

BOILERMAKERSBUILDING B.C.• Pulp & Paper• Electric Power Generation• LNG• Oil & Gas

www.boilermakers359.org

Celebrating this monumental milestone with

Rio Tinto AlcanCongratulations!


Continued from page 13

Accommodations


LOCAL1611

Head Office#200 - 19092 26th AvenueSurrey, BC V3Z 3V7604.541.1611 or 1.800.663.6588

Construction & Specialized Workers’ Union

“WE ARE THE LABOURERS”

Our Union, as Chair of the Coalition of Construction Craft Unions,

congratulates and gives great thanks to Rio Tinto, Bechtel and all the Contrators,

and the Haisla First Nations, for the first hot metal produced at the KMP.

The original Kemano Project in the 1950’s was the birthplace of our

Labourers’ Union, known at the time as the Tunnel and Rock Workers’ Local 168.

Now Local 1611 and our newest generation of membership, are proud to carry on the tradition at the KMP.

Congratulations

Commemorative Ad Revised.indd 1 7/24/2015 9:06:04 AM

Into the Future July 2015

Congratulations!

Into the FutureJuly 2015

Looking Back

May 2008

Local Presence, Global Capability Lapointe Engineering, having been a part of the Kitimat Modernization Project since 2004, offers our thanks to Rio Tinto for their commitment and support to northwestern BC, notably the Kitimat community.

As Rio Tinto has evolved for future sustainability, so has Lapointe Engineering.

Effective June 1, 2015, Lapointe Engineering has joined the global family of Hatch and will continue to offer Project and Construction Management, Design Engineering, and Operational Performance services.

www.hatch.ca | www.lapointe-eng.comAt Hatch, the future is here.

Hatch Lapointe congratulates Rio Tinto Aluminium Group on its first hot metal pour.

For more information, please contact:Alex Ramos-Espinoza, P.Eng. T: 250.639.4750 E: [email protected]

Alex PietrallaT: 250.635.8883 | C: 250.632.1614 E: [email protected]

or



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Special Features - Rio Tinto Alcan Hot Metal July 2015

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