I have been critiicized by others on this board by being negative and bashing when I made statements about timelines to bring PYR torches into service in pelletising operations.
My concerns were recently confirmed to me by someone on the grapevine concerning IOC operating in Labrador West, and by a RIO Tinto NR dated 16 feb concerning the future products other than pellets, briquettes.
Background: Labrador has a surplus of electricity at the moment. Churchill Falls ( 5,428 Mega watts and 35 terawatt hrs ) is no longer the only major souce of hydro electricity. It has now been joined by Muskrat Falls, the lower Churchill, ( 824 megawatts and 4,9 terawatt hours annually ) coming on line at this moment. Quebec is also in a state of surplus electricity. Three transmission lines of 735 Kvolts go south from Churchill to Sept-Iles, Quebec. Sending electricity north is not out of question. Do your DD and get out your maps and connect the dots. Also IOC has no surplus electricity at Labrador City for torches or for briquettes. New overland transmission lines are required to feed the Carol Lake plant of IOC.
If the power comes from Quebec the logical location for the briquette plant would be in Sept-Iles.
That would be to the great displeasure of Labrador. Sept-Iles is the terminal of the railway and the ship loading operation of IOC. Plenty of IOC land is already available and more is easily accessible across the highway.
High level discutions with Fed and Prov govs are active as well as with Hydro Quebec and with Nalcor concerning supply of power and transmission lines to IOC. Climate related initiatives are also on the table. Expect lots of $ to be available in the Fed Climat Plan. The present Fed gov is a minority and an election could come at any time.
Keep your eyes and ears open for announcements from politicians looking to raise their profile before an election.
That sort of thing can take many months to come to fruition. Only then will the detailed engineering commence before any on site work can start.
The real benefits to the bottom line may be over two years away. Just getting power to IOC could take that long.
The above is the IOC story. I expect that similar situations may be found elsewhere. The electrical needs of torches are special and probably out of the capacity of existing plants. Big business does not over build. On site tests of one torch may be possible but not a wholesale change over in a couple of months. Torches may be plug and play, but the plug and its power supply are not.
PS: IOC has been communicating with PYR for over two years and is well aware of the LKAB tests.