Infrastructure holding two smelter furnaces in place at Vale Inco’s Copper Cliff Smelter in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada must be inspected and repaired or replaced every 18 months. The smelter routinely processes nickel at temperatures approaching 1200 degrees centigrade. All of the mechanical and structural work with the furnace, including rebuilding the steel work and replacing the cooling blocks and the plumbing for the coolers will be done by the Mechanical Department with TESC Contracting Co. Ltd of Sudbury. These weigh anywhere from 1.5 to about 8tns each. They are manufactured in different shapes and configurations, because new designs are often used to see which ones perform best. Some of the blocks are salvaged, some are refurbished and some are recycled. The work begins with a crew of about 40 TESC workers and expands to about 160 working 24 hours per day at welding, bolting and installing threaded steel piping and flex hoses. Exterior steel work is also performed around the smelter’s stack, using special alloys that are acid resistant. The contractor is waiting for the delivery of custom-fabricated cooling blocks being delivered from overseas. Once maintenance and re-construction is completed, the smelter will resume operations in July.